Chapter 9 - Ionic liquids for the removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products

Abstract

Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) have been broadly applied in various fields such as industry, medicine, farming, aquaculture, livestock, and people's daily lives. PPCPs are durable manmade materials intended for human and animal health and medical applications. PPCPs can be sorted as anticonvulsants, antibiotics, hormones, contrast agents, β-blockers, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, painkillers, lipid regulators, disinfectants, preservatives, fungicides, insect repellants, detergents and soaps, sunscreen UV filters, and fragrances. Additionally, PPCPs are compounds composed principally of polar compounds with molecular weights of 150–1000 Daltons (DA) and a wide range of physicochemical characteristics. Over the past decade, global PPCP consumption has increased annually, and the top consuming countries include Russia, Brazil, China, South Africa, and India. To date, more than 3000 PPCPs have been produced and the continuous development of new chemical compounds has resulted in an increase in the abundance and diversity of PPCPs in the environment. Due to this high consumption, PPCPs may enter the aquatic environment directly or indirectly through human activities such as livestock breeding, sewage disposal, landfill leachate, and fertilization, leading to their presence in groundwater and surface water with a concentration of ng/L to mg/L. It has been revealed that constant exposure to subtoxic and low concentrations of some PPCPs can create unexpected outcomes and adverse effects on nontarget species and unfavorable effects on humans and ecosystems. Therefore their presence in the environment may threaten ecological and human health. Because of insufficient knowledge about the impacts, toxicity, and behaviors of PPCPs, a small number of them are regularly monitored in the environment, and many of them are illegal. However, as their potential for long-term environmental risk is increasingly identified, related standards and regulations can be expected in the coming decades. They are becoming widespread in the environment owing to their extensive use and negligible elimination by the common biological wastewater treatment plants. Public and scientific knowledge was increased when PPCPs were detected in the environment, including research that observed that organic pollutants, such as PPCPs, were present in 80% of 139 US streams. Since the impacts of these materials on the environment and human health are not completely known, the presence of PPCPs in the environment is a cause for concern. Although PPCPs are usually present only in trace concentrations in the environment, questions have increased about the microbial resistance, chemical persistence, and synergistic influences of the various PPCPs available. Researchers studying the toxicological implications of these compounds in the environment have realized that these trace concentrations can have adverse impacts on aquatic life. These findings have raised public concerns about the potential effects of these compounds on waterway ecology and human health. Because it is recognized that PPCPs are in the environment and could have unfavorable environmental and health impacts, methods to eliminate these contaminants from water are being investigated.