Carucci Alessandra, Cappai Giovanna, Piredda Martina
Department of Geoengineering and Environmental Technologies, DIGITA, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
J Environ Sci Health A Tox Hazard Subst Environ Eng. 2006;41(9):1831-42. doi: 10.1080/10934520600779000.
In this experimental study both biological treatability of pharmaceuticals and their potential toxic effect in biological processes were evaluated. The pharmaceuticals were selected among those that are present at higher concentration in the Italian wastewater treatment plant effluents and widely used as antiulcer (ranitidine), beta-blocker (atenolol) and antibiotic (lincomycin). The present paper is the continuation of a work already presented,[1] which used a synthetic wastewater fed to laboratory scale SBR (Sequencing Batch Reactor) operated with different sludge ages (8 and 14 days), different biochemical conditions (aerobic or anoxic-aerobic mode) and several influent drug concentrations (2, 3 and 5 mg/L). In this case a real municipal wastewater was used as influent to the SBR. In parallel, batch tests were conducted to determine the removal kinetics of drugs and nitrogen. Toxicity tests using a titrimetric biosensor to verify possible inhibition on microorganisms were also performed. Finally, the possible adsorption of the pharmaceuticals on activated sludge was evaluated. The drugs under investigation showed different behaviours in terms of both biodegradability and toxicity effect on nitrifiers. Ranitidine showed generally low removal efficiencies (17-26%) and a chronic inhibition on nitrification. Atenolol showed generally higher removal efficiencies than ranitidine, even if the fairly good efficiency obtained in the previous experimentation with synthetic wastewater (up to 90%) was not attained with real wastewater (36%). No inhibition on nitrification was observed on both acclimated and non acclimated microorganisms with a high nitrification activity, whilst it was present with activated sludge characterised by a lower nitrification activity. Consistently with his pharmaceutical properties, lincomycin showed significant inhibition on nitrification activity.
在本实验研究中，评估了药物的生物可处理性及其在生物过程中的潜在毒性作用。这些药物是从意大利污水处理厂废水中浓度较高且广泛用作抗溃疡药（雷尼替丁）、β受体阻滞剂（阿替洛尔）和抗生素（林可霉素）的药物中挑选出来的。本文是已发表工作的延续，[1] 该工作使用合成废水进料到实验室规模的序批式反应器（SBR），在不同污泥龄（8天和14天）、不同生化条件（好氧或缺氧 - 好氧模式）以及几种进水药物浓度（2、3和5mg/L）下运行。在这种情况下，使用实际城市污水作为SBR的进水。同时，进行了批次试验以确定药物和氮的去除动力学。还使用滴定生物传感器进行了毒性试验，以验证对微生物的可能抑制作用。最后，评估了药物在活性污泥上的可能吸附情况。所研究的药物在生物降解性和对硝化菌的毒性作用方面表现出不同的行为。雷尼替丁通常去除效率较低（17 - 26%），并对硝化作用有慢性抑制作用。阿替洛尔通常比雷尼替丁具有更高的去除效率，即使在先前合成废水实验中获得的相当好的效率（高达90%）在实际废水（36%）中未达到。对于具有高硝化活性的驯化和未驯化微生物均未观察到对硝化作用的抑制，而在具有较低硝化活性的活性污泥中则存在抑制作用。与这种药物特性一致，林可霉素对硝化活性表现出显著抑制作用。
