Research progress of occurrence,characteristics and fate of emerging contaminants in medical wastewater

Abstract

The issues of environment and health caused by emerging contaminants have become a worldwide focus. The sewage discharged from medical institutions is one of the important sources of emerging contaminants in the environment. During the current period of normalization of key infectious disease prevention and control, the concentration of emerging contaminants in medical wastewater has significantly increased, along with an increase of potential hazards to aquatic ecology. In response to such phenomena, the category and concentration of antibiotics,endocrine disrupting chemicals, and potential emerging contaminants in medical wastewater were discussed. The fate, removal rate, and contribution of emerging contaminants in medical wastewater to the environment was explored. Further the single compound toxicity and comprehensive toxicity of emerging contaminants in medical wastewater was elaborated. Finally, the current sewage discharge standards for medical institutions in China failure to control emerging contaminants was point out, the traditional sewage treatment processes were hard to effectively remove of emerging contaminants. Therefore, it was imperative to develop advanced techniques for standardized and tertiary treatment of medical wastewater.

Keywords

• medical wastewater
• emerging contaminants
• environmental contribution
• environmental fate
• environmental toxicity