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Two-year survey of specific hospital wastewater treatment and its impact on pharmaceutical discharges

  • Pharmaceuticals and detergents in hospital and urban wastewater: characterisation and impacts
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Abstract

It is well known that pharmaceuticals are not completely removed by conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment plants. Hospital effluents are of major concern, as they present high concentrations of pharmaceutically active compounds. Despite this, these specific effluents are usually co-treated with domestic wastewaters. Separate treatment has been recommended. However, there is a lack of information concerning the efficiency of separate hospital wastewater treatment by activated sludge, especially on the removal of pharmaceuticals. In this context, this article presents the results of a 2-year monitoring of conventional parameters, surfactants, gadolinium, and 13 pharmaceuticals on the specific study site SIPIBEL. This site allows the characterization of urban and hospital wastewaters and their separate treatment using the same process. Flow proportional sampling, solid-phase extraction, and liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry were used in order to obtain accurate data and limits of quantification consistent with ultra-trace detection. Thanks to these consolidated data, an in-depth characterization of urban and hospital wastewaters was realized, as well as a comparison of treatment efficiency between both effluents. Higher concentrations of organic carbon, AOX, phosphates, gadolinium, paracetamol, ketoprofen, and antibiotics were observed in hospital wastewaters compared to urban wastewaters. Globally higher removals were observed in the hospital wastewater treatment plant, and some parameters were shown to be of high importance regarding removal efficiencies: hydraulic retention time, redox conditions, and ambient temperature. Eleven pharmaceuticals were still quantified at relevant concentrations in hospital and urban wastewaters after treatment (e.g., up to 1 μg/L for sulfamethoxazole). However, as the urban flow was about 37 times higher than the hospital flow, the hospital contribution appeared relatively low compared to domestic discharges. Thanks to the SIPIBEL site, data obtained from this 2-year program are useful to evaluate the relevance of separate hospital wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the SIPIBEL field observatory on the hospital’s effluents and urban wastewater treatment plants for displaying data and measurements and the European Union, the Rhone-Mediterranean Corsica water agency, the Rhône Alpes Region, the ONEMA, and the French Ministry of Environment for their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lyon, CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Ens de Lyon, Institut des Sciences Analytiques, UMR 5280, 5 rue de la Doua, 69100, Villeurbanne, France

    Laure Wiest, Alexandre Bergé, Robert Baudot, Frédérique Bessueille-Barbier, Linda Ayouni-Derouiche & Emmanuelle Vulliet

  2. Université de Lyon, INSA Lyon, DEEP, 69621, Villeurbanne Cedex, France

    Teofana Chonova

  3. Groupe de Recherche Rhône Alpes sur les Infrastructure et l’Eau (GRAIE), 66 bd Niels Bohr, 69100, Villeurbanne, France

    Teofana Chonova

Authors
  1. Laure Wiest
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  2. Teofana Chonova
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  3. Alexandre Bergé
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  6. Linda Ayouni-Derouiche
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  7. Emmanuelle Vulliet
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Correspondence to Laure Wiest.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Highlights

– Hospital and urban effluents are compared

– Impact of hospital wastewater on activated sludge treatment is studied

– Seasonal variations of pharmaceuticals removal efficiency are demonstrated

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Wiest, L., Chonova, T., Bergé, A. et al. Two-year survey of specific hospital wastewater treatment and its impact on pharmaceutical discharges. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 9207–9218 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9662-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9662-5

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