Toxicity Analysis And Source Reduction Process Evaluation Of Priority Control Pharmaceuticals In Seven Major Rivers

Pharmaceuticals have been widely used in human health,animal husbandry,food processing and other aspects,and become one of the compounds closely related to human life.In recent years,the types and concentrations of pharmaceutical contaminants detected in environmental water phases such as surface water and groundwater have been increasing.These substances not only have adverse effects on the aquatic environment and aquatic organisms,but also affect the entire ecosystem and human health.Therefore,the potential toxicity and environmental effects of pharmaceuticals have become a research hotspot in recent years.This study have been carried out on the screening of priority control pharmaceutical s in major rivers of China,the potential toxicity of pharmaceuticals in environmental water based on USEtox,and the toxicity and environmental impact assessment on the removal of priority control pharmaceuticals with advanced treatment process.This study provided guidance to researchers and regulators on the risks of pharmaceuticals to human and ecological health and provided a scientific basis for planning and decision-making on environmental impacts of sewage treatment plant upgrading projects while overcoming the one-sided and partial nature of traditional environmental impact assessment methods.Based on the current situation of use,pollution and advanced treatment of pharmaceuticals in China,the comprehensive scoring method was adopted to select the actual environmental concentration,environmental exposure risk and ecological effects as indexes to establish the ranking system of priority pharmaceuticals of major rivers in China.According to this ranking system,a priority pharmaceuticals list of major rivers in China was obtained which contained 10 kinds of antibiotics(erythromycin,anhydroerythromycin,azithromycin,clarithromycin,trimethoprim,sulfamethoxazole,acetyl sulfamethoxazole,ciprofloxacin,norfloxacin and cefazolin),3 kinds of antiphlogistics(ibuprofen,diclofenac and indomethacin)and 1 kind of antilipemic agent(bezafibrate).It was found that antibiotics were the most risky pharmaceutical while sulfonamides were the most risky antibiotics in the major rivers of China.In addition,the Yangtze river,Pearl river and Hai river had higher levels of pharmaceutical contamination than other rivers,and the Pearl river had the highest potential risk to aquatic organisms,while Songhua river and Hai river had the lowest potential risk.This study systematically studied the distribution characteristics and health risks of pharmaceuticals in major rivers of China and provided a new decision support system for the management and control of pharmaceutical contamination in rivers of China.Based on the input parameters of physicochemical properties,degradation rate,bioaccumulation,ecotoxicity and human toxicity,the Usetox model was used to analyze the ecotoxicity and human toxicity characteristic factors of 39 drugs,and the potential toxicity effects of pharmaceuticals in major rivers of China were analyzed.Sulfonamides and macrolides are the pharmaceuticals with the highest ecotoxic effects in major rivers of China,and their ecological effects are between ND-1.29×10^-6CTU_eand 3.96×10^-8-9.37×10^-7 CTU_e,respectively.Quinolone antibiotics and anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals had the highest toxic effects on human body,and their human effects were 2.67×10^-17-4.09×10^-15 CTU_hand ND-5.98×10^-12 CTU_h,respectively.The emission sources that caused the pharmaceutical pollution in the rivers were analyzed.Based on the comprehensive scoring method,predict the environmental concentration,removal rate,ecological impact and health impact were selected as indexes to establish the ranking system of priority pharmaceuticals of WWTPs in China.Evaluation of toxicity effect and environmental impact of three wastewater advanced treatment processes which contained granular activated carbon,nanofiltration and ozone oxidation for the removal of 39 pharmaceuticals which contained priority control pharmaceuticals has been carried with USEtox method and CML2001 method.The result showed that nanofiltration process has the best effect to remove the ecology and human toxicity of the pharmaceuticals and the least environmental load.The nanofiltration process reduced the ecology and human toxicity of pharmaceuticals by 92%and 95%,respectively.In addition,the toxic effect in the operation process was also the least.The production and use of electricity and chemicals are the key factors that cause the toxic effect and environmental impact.The of electric power contributed the most to non-biological resource depletion,global warming,ozone layer depletion and photochemical smog,which were 88.25%,87.16%,73.38%and 76.36%,respectively.The compounds contributed the most to acidification effect and eutrophication,which were 60.20%and 59.55%,respectively.