Assessment of the Presence of Pharmaceutical Compounds in Wastewaters and in Aquatic Environment

Abstract

In this work, we have analyzed the presence of pharmaceutical compounds in the wastewater of a regional hospital in Vlora, Albania, during June 2020 and June 2021. For this analysis, we measured the concentration of 19 preselected pharmaceutical molecules in discharging water by direct sampling in the waters, and we investigated the presence of pharmaceuticals in the algae Ulva Lactuca. Chemical analysis has been conducted via liquid chromatography in tandem with mass spectrometry at a limit of quantization of 0.1 ng/L. It resulted that, from the ensemble of 19 pharmaceutical molecules consisting of antibiotics, analgesics, psychiatric drugs, and beta-blockers, the antibiotics were found at the highest concentration. The quantity of medical chemicals’ presence varies from 0.2 to 0.24 mg/L. Traces of pharmaceuticals are obtained from Ulva Lactucaalgae in effluent water next to the city treatment plant. The concentration for each of the 19 molecules considered in this work remains below 0.1 ng/L. Finally, the values of physicochemical parameters were found within the range reported by several studies for hospital influent waters, collected in different countries and for many years. Doi: 10.28991/HEF-2023-04-03-03 Full Text: PDF