Pharmaceutical grey water footprint: Accounting, influence of wastewater treatment plants and implications of the reuse

Water Research
Isabel Martínez-AlcaláCarmen Fernández-López

Abstract

Emerging pollutants, including pharmaceutical compounds, are producing water pollution problems around the world. Some pharmaceutical pollutants, which mainly reach ecosystems within wastewater discharges, are persistent in the water cycle and can also reach the food chain. This work addresses this issue, accounting the grey component of the water footprint (GWFP) for four of the most common pharmaceutical compounds (carbamazepine (CBZ), diclofenac (DCF), ketoprofen (KTP) and naproxen (NPX)). In addition, the GWFC for the main conventional pollutants is also accounted (nitrate, phosphates and organic matter). The case study is the Murcia Region of southeastern Spain, where wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) purify 99.1% of the wastewater discharges and there is an important direct reuse of the treated wastewater in irrigation. Thus, the influence of WWTPs and reuse on the GWF is analysed. The results reveal that GWFP, only taking into account pharmaceutical pollutants, has a value of 301 m3 inhabitant-1 year-1; considering only conventional pollutants (GWFC), this value increases to 4718 m3 inhabitant-1 year-1. So, the difference between these values is such that in other areas with consumption habits similar to those of the M...Continue Reading

Citations

Nov 7, 2018·PloS One·José Miguel Martínez-PazFrancisco Pellicer-Martínez
Apr 8, 2020·Molecules : a Journal of Synthetic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry·R Guedes-AlonsoJ J Santana-Rodríguez
Apr 3, 2020·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Shibo CuiJeffrey Wilson
Feb 15, 2021·The Science of the Total Environment·Peizhe CuiSheng Yang
May 3, 2021·The Science of the Total Environment·Haoyuan FengYue Che
Jul 13, 2021·Environmental Pollution·Lara WöhlerMaarten S Krol

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