Environmental risk assessment of antibiotics in the Swedish environment with emphasis on sewage treatment plants
Journal article, 2007
The potential risks associated with antibiotics present in the Swedish environment were assessed using concentrations found in hospital effluent, and sewage treatment waters and sludge, in combination with data on their environmental effects obtained from the literature. For the aqueous environment, measured environmental concentrations and effect/no observed effect concentration ratios were much lower than one in most cases. The only exceptions, where concentrations of the investigated substances were high enough to pose potential risks, were the concentrations of the two fluoroquinolones, ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin, in the hospital effluent. Treating digested dewatered sludge by heat did not fully eliminate norfloxacin or ciprofloxacin, thus pellets may still contain high amounts of these substances (sub to low mg kg(-1) dw). In leaching tests less than 1% of the amounts of these fluoroquinolones in the sludge or pellets reached the aqueous phase, indicating that their mobility is limited if sludge is used to fertilize soil. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PHARMACEUTICALS
antibiotics
sewage treatment
MIXTURE
LEMNA-GIBBA
TOXICITY
VIBRIO-FISCHERI
ALGAL
environmental risk assessment
RESISTANCE
FLUOROQUINOLONE ANTIBACTERIAL AGENTS
SLUDGE
Sweden
SOIL
plants
SOLID-PHASE EXTRACTION
Author
R. H. Lindberg
Umeå University
Karin Björklund
Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Water Environment Technology
P. Rendahl
Umeva
Magnus Johansson
AstraZeneca AB
M. Tysklind
Umeå University
B. A. V. Andersson
Umeå University
Water Research
0043-1354 (ISSN) 1879-2448 (eISSN)
Vol. 41 3 613-619Subject Categories
Civil Engineering
DOI
10.1016/j.watres.2006.11.014