Aims
To perform wastewater analyses to assess spatial differences and temporal changes of illicit drug use in a large European population.
Design
Analyses of raw wastewater over a 1‐week period in ...2012 and 2013.
Setting and Participants
Catchment areas of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) across Europe, as follows: 2012: 25 WWTPs in 11 countries (23 cities, total population 11.50 million); 2013: 47 WWTPs in 21 countries (42 cities, total population 24.74 million).
Measurements
Excretion products of five illicit drugs (cocaine, amphetamine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, cannabis) were quantified in wastewater samples using methods based on liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry.
Findings
Spatial differences were assessed and confirmed to vary greatly across European metropolitan areas. In general, results were in agreement with traditional surveillance data, where available. While temporal changes were substantial in individual cities and years (P ranging from insignificant to <10−3), overall means were relatively stable. The overall mean of methamphetamine was an exception (apparent decline in 2012), as it was influenced mainly by four cities.
Conclusions
Wastewater analysis performed across Europe provides complementary evidence on illicit drug consumption and generally concurs with traditional surveillance data. Wastewater analysis can measure total illicit drug use more quickly and regularly than is the current norm for national surveys, and creates estimates where such data does not exist.
The robustness of reverse osmosis (RO) against polar organic micropollutants (MPs) was investigated in pilot-scale drinking water treatment. Experiments were carried in hypoxic conditions to treat a ...raw anaerobic riverbank filtrate spiked with a mixture of thirty model compounds. The chemicals were selected from scientific literature data based on their relevance for the quality of freshwater systems, RO permeate and drinking water. MPs passage and the influence of permeate flux were evaluated with a typical low-pressure RO membrane and quantified by liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry. A strong inverse correlation between size and passage of neutral hydrophilic compounds was observed. This correlation was weaker for moderately hydrophobic MPs. Anionic MPs displayed nearly no passage due to electrostatic repulsion with the negatively charged membrane surface, whereas breakthrough of small cationic MPs could be observed. The passage figures observed for the investigated set of MPs ranged from less than 1%–25%. Statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between physicochemical properties and passage. The effects of permeate flux were more pronounced for small neutral MPs, which displayed a higher passage after a pressure drop.
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•Strong size-passage correlation for neutral hydrophilic organics (logD<2).•Weaker size-passage correlation for moderately hydrophobic organics (logD>2).•Passage of cationic organics was higher than that of anions of comparable size.•Low permeate flux resulted in increased passage of small neutral polar organics.•Higher salt and organic passage observed for at least 5 h following a pressure drop.
The discharge of persistent and mobile organic chemicals (PMOCs) into the aquatic environment is a threat to the quality of our water resources. PMOCs are highly polar (mobile in water) and can pass ...through wastewater treatment plants, subsurface environments and potentially also drinking water treatment processes. While a few such compounds are known, we infer that their number is actually much larger. This Feature highlights the issue of PMOCs from an environmental perspective and assesses the gaps that appear to exist in terms of analysis, monitoring, water treatment and regulation. On this basis we elaborate strategies on how to narrow these gaps with the intention to better protect our water resources.
The historic emissions of polar micropollutants in a natural drinking water source were investigated by nontarget screening with high-resolution mass spectrometry and open cheminformatics tools. The ...study area consisted of a riverbank filtration transect fed by the river Lek, a branch of the lower Rhine, and exhibiting up to 60-year travel time. More than 18,000 profiles were detected. Hierarchical clustering revealed that 43% of the 15 most populated clusters were characterized by intensity trends with maxima in the 1990s, reflecting intensified human activities, wastewater treatment plant upgrades and regulation in the Rhine riparian countries. Tentative structure annotation was performed using automated in silico fragmentation. Candidate structures retrieved from ChemSpider were scored based on the fit of the in silico fragments to the experimental tandem mass spectra, similarity to openly accessible accurate mass spectra, associated metadata, and presence in a suspect list. Sixty-seven unique structures (72 over both ionization modes) were tentatively identified, 25 of which were confirmed and included contaminants so far unknown to occur in bank filtrate or in natural waters at all, such as tetramethylsulfamide. This study demonstrates that many classes of hydrophilic organics enter riverbank filtration systems, persisting and migrating for decades if biogeochemical conditions are stable.
Mass spectrometry based non-target analysis is increasingly adopted in environmental sciences to screen and identify numerous chemicals simultaneously in highly complex samples. However, current data ...processing software either lack functionality for environmental sciences, solve only part of the workflow, are not openly available and/or are restricted in input data formats. In this paper we present
patRoon
, a new
R
based open-source software platform, which provides comprehensive, fully tailored and straightforward non-target analysis workflows. This platform makes the use, evaluation and mixing of well-tested algorithms seamless by harmonizing various common (primarily open) software tools under a consistent interface. In addition,
patRoon
offers various functionality and strategies to simplify and perform automated processing of complex (environmental) data effectively.
patRoon
implements several effective optimization strategies to significantly reduce computational times. The ability of
patRoon
to perform time-efficient and automated non-target data annotation of environmental samples is demonstrated with a simple and reproducible workflow using open-access data of spiked samples from a drinking water treatment plant study. In addition, the ability to easily use, combine and evaluate different algorithms was demonstrated for three commonly used feature finding algorithms. This article, combined with already published works, demonstrate that
patRoon
helps make comprehensive (environmental) non-target analysis readily accessible to a wider community of researchers.
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•Biodegradation assays of 5 highly-consumed pharmaceuticals were performed.•22 TPs were identified by LC–HRMS making use of a QTOF instrument.•3 more TPs were found by common ...fragmentation pathway in effluent wastewater.•Up to 14 TPs were detected in effluent wastewater and surface water samples.•Some TPs were more frequently detected than their parent compound.
Venlafaxine, gemfibrozil, ibuprofen, irbesartan and ofloxacin are highly-consumed pharmaceuticals that show considerable removal efficiencies (between 40 and 98%) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Consequently, they are expected to generate transformation products (TPs) during wastewater treatment and in surface water (SW) receiving WWTP effluent. In this work, degradation experiments for these five pharmaceuticals have been carried out with SW and WWTP activated sludge under laboratory-controlled aerobic conditions to identify their transformation products by liquid chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC–QTOF MS). Initially, 22 pharmaceutical TPs were tentatively identified. A retrospective analysis was performed in effluent wastewater (EWW) and SW samples. All parent compounds as well as several TPs were found in some of the selected EWW and SW samples. Additionally, valsartan and 3 TPs were also detected by searching for common fragments in these waters. It is important to highlight that some TPs, such as O-desmethyl-venlafaxine and an oxidized gemfibrozil TP, were more frequently found than their corresponding parent compounds. On the basis of these results, it would be recommendable to include these TPs (at least those found in EWW and SW samples analyzed) in monitoring programs in order to gain a more realistic understanding of the impact of pharmaceuticals on water quality.
Citation: Blum A, Balan SA, Scheringer M, Trier X, Goldenman G, Cousins IT, Diamond M, Fletcher T, Higgins C, Lindeman AE, Peaslee G, de Voogt P, Wang Z, Weber R. 2015. The Madrid statement on poly- ...and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Environ Health Perspect 123:A107-A111; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1509934 E-mail: arlenereensciencepolicy.org The views expressed in this statement are solely those of the authors and signatories. The authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interests. Published: 1 May 2015
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