Occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in domestic wastewater, available treatment technologies, and potential treatment using constructed wetland: A review

Abstract

Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) are primarily anthropogenic compounds found in water at trace concentrations and mostly still ignored. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are two popular categories of CECs. PPCPs are persistent in the environment and capable of disrupting the physiology of target receptors. PPCPs are reported to be overused daily and exposed to aquatic environment via multiple routes, including municipal and industrial effluent. Nevertheless, there is a lack of a comprehensive summary of PPCPs removal techniques, particularly in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). While WWTPs are inefficient at removing PPCPs, they serve as primary barriers to the spread of CECs. This paper reviews and highlights the conventional treatment technologies involved for PPCPs removal in WWTPs as well as comparison with phytotechnology in the wastewater treatment field to combat the disconcerting occurrence of PPCPs. Operating parameters in applying phytotechnology, including retention time and aeration requirement as well as major challenges for phytoremediation of PPCPs are evaluated. Fate of PPCPs (focused on ibuprofen and paracetamol) are discussed in detail during treatment using constructed wetland. The results validated concerns regarding the prevalence of PPCPs and the good potential of using constructed wetland as tertiary treatment in WWTP to avoid further spreading of PPCPs to the environment.