Antibiotics as emerging pollutants. Ecotoxicological risk and control in wastewater and reclaimed water

Abstract

Martínez-Alcalá, I., Soto, J., Lahora, A. 2020. Antibiotics as emerging pollutants. Ecotoxicological risk and control in wastewater and reclaimed water. Ecosistemas 29(3):2070. https://doi.org/10.7818/ECOS.2070

The presence of emerging pollutants in waters is increasing. Antibiotics are of particular concern because they can lead to the emergence of resistant bacteria, but also because these antibiotics can adversely affect the ecosystems and the organisms that inhabit them. The antibiotics used for human consumption end up reaching the wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) where they are only partially eliminated. For this reason, this study tries to determine which antibiotics are found in WWTPs and at what concentrations, and if once their effluents are discharged into the environment, they may cause some ecotoxicological risk for different aquatic organisms. Of 17 antibiotics analysed in the influents of the WWTP, only 3 were detected in 100 % of the samples analysed (azithromycin, ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin), of which, after the purification process, only azithromycin was detected in the 100 % of the samples. The antibiotic that was found in a higher concentration in the influents was clarithromycin (2850 ng L^-1), while, after the different purification processes, in the effluents, the antibiotic that was found in a higher concentration was azithromycin (1110 ng L^-1). After evaluating the ecotoxicological risk of the effluents, two WWTPs obtained a medium risk assessment for clarithromycin and azithromycin, while for the rest of the WWTP, the risk was negligible.