International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology of China (SUSTECH), Shenzhen 518055, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2018 Dec 10;644:754-761. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.358. Epub 2018 Jul 11.
Parabens are widely used in food, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products because they are excellent preservatives. Recently, the environmental fate of parabens has attracted attention owing to their similarity to some endocrine disrupters. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are both important sinks of parabens discharged from our daily activities and key pollution sources for the environment if the parabens are not completely removed. However, research in this area is scarce, especially in Asia. In this study, 6 commonly used parabens and 4 metabolites were analyzed in wastewater and sludge samples from two typical WWTPs with different treatment processes (the anaerobic-oxic (A/O) and cyclic activated sludge technology (CAST) treatment processes). The average concentrations of parabens in the A/O and CAST treatment processes were 1510 ng/L and 2180 ng/L, respectively, in the influent, and 70.5 ng/L and 19.7 ng/L, respectively, in the effluent. The paraben removal efficiencies in the A/O treatment process were between 56.8% and 100%, which is lower than the efficiencies for the CAST treatment process (97.7% to 100%). The average concentrations of metabolites in the A/O treatment process, which were much higher than paraben concentrations, were 35,200 ng/L in the influent, 334 ng/L in the effluent, and 146 ng/g in the sludge samples. The removal efficiencies for the 4 metabolites were >92% for the A/O treatment process. In total, for the A/O treatment process, 5.07 kg and 16.8 kg of parabens, and 24.4 kg and 16.0 kg of metabolites, were discharged into the environment annually via effluent and sludge, respectively. Overall, the results of this study indicate that the A/O and CAST treatment processes are both effective at removing parabens and their metabolites.
对羟基苯甲酸酯被广泛应用于食品、制药和个人护理产品中，因为它们是出色的防腐剂。最近，由于对羟基苯甲酸酯与某些内分泌干扰物相似，其环境归宿引起了人们的关注。污水处理厂（WWTP）既是我们日常活动中排放的对羟基苯甲酸酯的重要汇，也是环境的重要污染源，如果不对其进行完全去除的话。然而，这方面的研究还很缺乏，尤其是在亚洲。在这项研究中，分析了两种不同处理工艺（厌氧-好氧（A/O）和循环活性污泥技术（CAST）处理工艺）的典型 WWTP 中的废水和污泥样品中的 6 种常用对羟基苯甲酸酯和 4 种代谢物。A/O 和 CAST 处理工艺的进水浓度分别为 1510ng/L 和 2180ng/L，出水浓度分别为 70.5ng/L 和 19.7ng/L。A/O 处理工艺的对羟基苯甲酸酯去除效率在 56.8%到 100%之间，低于 CAST 处理工艺（97.7%到 100%）。A/O 处理工艺中代谢物的浓度平均值高于对羟基苯甲酸酯浓度，进水浓度为 35200ng/L，出水浓度为 334ng/L，污泥样品浓度为 146ng/g。A/O 处理工艺对 4 种代谢物的去除效率均>92%。总的来说，对于 A/O 处理工艺，每年有 5.07kg 和 16.8kg 的对羟基苯甲酸酯以及 24.4kg 和 16.0kg 的代谢物通过出水和污泥排放到环境中。总体而言，本研究结果表明，A/O 和 CAST 处理工艺都能有效去除对羟基苯甲酸酯及其代谢物。
