Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor Nick Voulvoulis

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Centre for Environmental Policy

Professor of Environmental Technology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7459n.voulvoulis Website

 
 
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Location

 

103Weeks BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Al:2014:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.128,
author = {Al, Aukidy M and Verlicchi, P and Voulvoulis, N},
doi = {10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.128},
journal = {Science of the Total Environment},
pages = {54--64},
title = {A framework for the assessment of the environmental risk posed by pharmaceuticals originating from hospital effluents},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.128},
volume = {493},
year = {2014}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The consumption of pharmaceuticals is increasing in both hospitals and households. After administration, many compounds enter the water cycle as parent compounds or their metabolites via excretion. Conventional municipal wastewater treatment plants are unable to efficiently remove all the different compounds found in sewage and, consequently, treated effluents are one of the main sources of persistent micropollutants in the environment. Hospital patients are administered relatively high quantities of drugs and therefore hospital wastewaters can consistently contribute to treatment plant influent loads, with the magnitude of environmental risk posed by pharmaceuticals originating from hospital effluents largely unknown. This study has therefore developed a framework to enable authorities responsible for hospital management and environmental health to evaluate such risk, considering site-specific information such as the contribution of human population and hospital sizes, wastewater treatment removal efficiency, and potential dilution in the receiving water body. The framework was applied to three case studies, that are representative of frequent situations in many countries, and findings demonstrated that the degree of risk posed by any compound was site-specific and depended on a combination of several factors: compound concentration and toxicity, compound removal efficiency in the wastewater treatment plant and dilution factor. Ofloxacin, 17α-ethinylestradiol, erythromycin and sulfamethoxazole were identified as compounds of concern and might require management in order to reduce risk.
AU  - Al,Aukidy M
AU  - Verlicchi,P
AU  - Voulvoulis,N
DO  - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.128
EP  - 64
PY  - 2014///
SN  - 0048-9697
SP  - 54
TI  - A framework for the assessment of the environmental risk posed by pharmaceuticals originating from hospital effluents
T2  - Science of the Total Environment
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.128
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000340312000006&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/67876
VL  - 493
ER  -
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