Authors: A GarciaRodríguez V Matamoros C Fontàs V Salvadó
Publish Date: 2014/06/07
Volume: 12, Issue: 7, Pages: 2327-2338
Abstract
The presence of pharmaceuticals and endocrinedisrupting chemicals EDCs in wastewater treatment plant effluents is an issue of great concern due to the negative effects that these compounds may have on human health and ecosystems The present study aims to assess the capacity of two aquatic plants Lemna sp and Spirogyra sp commonly found in polishing ponds for removing six pharmaceutical compounds diclofenac acetaminophen ibuprofen carbamazepine clofibric acid and propranolol two EDCs 17αethinylestradiol and bisphenol A and one stimulant caffeine under laboratoryscale conditions Planted and unplanted reactors fed with secondarytreated wastewater or ultrapure water in both covered and uncovered conditions were studied The highest removal efficiencies which ranged from 31 to 100 were achieved in uncovered planted systems containing secondarytreated wastewater after 20 days of incubation The results demonstrated that noncharged compounds with a log Kow between 2 and 4 were affected by the presence of vegetation probably due to their plant uptake whereas negatively charged compounds were not This highlights that the presence of plants in polishing ponds plays an important role in the removal of pharmaceuticals and EDCsThe financial support of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Inovación through project CTM201128765C0202 is gratefully acknowledged Aida GarciaRodríguez thanks the University of Girona for research Grant BR2011/27 Dr V M would like to acknowledge a JAEDoc contract from the CSIC and the European Social Fund
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