Environmental Risk and Risk of Resistance Selection Due to Antimicrobials' Occurrence in Two Polish Wastewater Treatment Plants and Receiving Surface Water.

Joanna Giebułtowicz,Ewa Korzeniewska,Grzegorz Nałęcz-Jawecki,Monika Harnisz,Dawid Kucharski,Grażyna Płaza

doi:10.3390/molecules25061470

Abstract

In this study, a screening of 26 selected antimicrobials using liquid chromatography coupled to a tandem mass spectrometry method in two Polish wastewater treatment plants and their receiving surface waters was provided. The highest average concentrations of metronidazole (7400 ng/L), ciprofloxacin (4300 ng/L), vancomycin (3200 ng/L), and sulfamethoxazole (3000 ng/L) were observed in influent of WWTP2. Ciprofloxacin and sulfamethoxazole were the most dominant antimicrobials in influent and effluent of both WWTPs. In the sludge samples the highest mean concentrations were found for ciprofloxacin (up to 28 μg/g) and norfloxacin (up to 5.3 μg/g). The removal efficiency of tested antimicrobials was found to be more than 50% for both WWTPs. However, the presence of antimicrobials influenced their concentrations in the receiving waters. The highest antimicrobial resistance risk was estimated in influent of WWTPs for azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin, metronidazole, and trimethoprim and in the sludge samples for the following antimicrobials: azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin, norfloxacin, trimethoprim, ofloxacin, and tetracycline. The high environmental risk for exposure to azithromycin, clarithromycin, and sulfamethoxazole to both cyanobacteria and eukaryotic species in effluents and/or receiving water was noted. Following the obtained results, we suggest extending the watch list of the Water Framework Directive for Union-wide monitoring with sulfamethoxazole.

Highlights

The fate of contaminants, pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in the environment is receiving considerable attention from researchers
According to sales data for 2018 (published by the Polish National Health Fund (NFZ)), among detected antimicrobials, the highest sale in Poland was noted for clarithromycin, sulfamethoxazole, ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, and clindamycin (737 kg/month)
We compared the predicted load of antimicrobials in the WWTP1 (PLoad) (Poland) with the load calculated based on the measured concentrations of the drugs in the influent and in the primary sludge (LoadW+S ) (Table A1, Online Resource)

Summary

Introduction

The fate of contaminants, pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in the environment is receiving considerable attention from researchers. PhACs appear as contaminants in wastewater, soil, surface and ground water, municipal sewage, and in the influents and effluents of wastewater treatment plants [1,2,3]. There are several sources of PhACs in the environment. Molecules 2020, 25, 1470 important is human and veterinary medicine as well as plant agriculture. The main sources of aquatic contamination with human antimicrobials are wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The PhACs enter WWTPs along with wastewater from the disposal of unused or expired drugs in toilets. Human excretion is considered to be the most important source. WWTPs are not designed to eliminate PhACs during the technological process, and a number of studies have shown the presence of different PhACs in both raw and treated sewage sludge and wastewater [4,5,6,7,8].

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