Pharmaceuticals in Surface Water and Waste Water Treatment Plant Effluent around the World – A Review

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are “Emerging Contaminants” which widely exist around the word in trace amounts. Evidence by researchers showed that PPCPs can have potential risk on humans and the environment. This paper reviews the occurrence of nine PPCPs for North America, Europe, Asia and Australia based on published literature. The study revealed that industrialized countries in North America and Europe have a higher concentration of PPCPs and with advanced techniques like GC/MS, LC-MS/MS, HPLC/UV and UPLC/MS/MS can precisely analyze the PPCPs from the surface water and waste water effluent. The paper also reviews technologies for the treatments of removal of those PPCPs. To remove PPCPs in wastewater and surface water, conventional physiochemical methods were not suitable. Advanced methods like reverse osmosis, nano-filtration and constructed wetlands can effectively remove PPCPs. Advanced techniques such as reverse osmosis, nano-filtration and constructed wetlands showed great removal efficiency.