A research team at Swansea University in Wales have developed a new method for fast removal and detection of wastewater pollutants that come from everyday pharmaceuticals like paracetamol, ibuprofen, and aspirin, which could help minimize their impact on the environment. The new method will speed up our understanding of which pollutants may be released and could help reduce the negative effects they have on the wider environment. First author Dr. Rachel Townsend said: “Many people don’t really think about what happens to these drugs once they’ve taken them. Like any foodstuff, once a drug has been taken, it is excreted from the body and ends up in a wastewater treatment plant.
The team have pioneered one process that uses a sample preparation method, called QuEChERS, with mass spectrometric detection. Using this process, they were able to detect, extract, and quantify a range of pharmaceutical compounds and personal care products from a variety of sources, such as wastewater sludge, where previously multiple extraction methods were needed, making it more efficient in time and resources needed.
The researchers could then get a clearer picture of the factors controlling how antimicrobial resistance develops and spreads in the community, and this knowledge has the potential to help safeguard water quality, the environment, and health. The results will now help to inform the Chemical Investigation Programme, which is a British research initiative that contributes to the European Union Directive for environmental management. With enough research and data, changes can be made to the wastewater treatment process to ensure these everyday pollutants are degraded or removed with the hope of preventing any further impact on the wider environment and ensuring human health remains unaffected.
Source: Water Canada
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