Advanced Water Management Centre , The University of Queensland , St Lucia , Queensland 4072 , Australia.
Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences , The University of Queensland , Brisbane , Queensland 4102 , Australia.
Environ Sci Technol. 2019 Apr 16;53(8):4556-4565. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.8b06169. Epub 2019 Apr 4.
In-sewer stability of illicit drug biomarkers has been evaluated by several reactor-based studies, but less has been done in sewer pipes. Experiments conducted in sewer pipes have advantages over lab-scale reactors in providing more realistic biomarker stability due to the flow and biological dynamics. This study assessed the transportation and transformation of seven illicit drug biomarker compounds in a pilot-scale rising main and a gravity sewer pipe. Biomarkers presented diverse stability patterns in the pilot sewers, based on which a drug transformation model was calibrated. This model was subsequently validated using transformation data sets from the literature, aiming to demonstrate the predictability of the pilot-based transformation coefficients under varying sewer conditions. Furthermore, transformation coefficients for five investigated biomarkers were generated from four studies, and their prediction capabilities under the pilot-sewer conditions were jointly assessed using performance statistics. The transformation model was successful in simulating the in-sewer stability for most illicit drugs. However, further study is required to delineate the sources and pathways for those compounds with potential formations to be simulated in the transformation model. Overall, the transformation model calibrated using the pilot-sewer data is a credible tool for the application of wastewater-based epidemiology.
已有多项基于反应器的研究评估了污水中非法药物生物标志物的稳定性，但针对污水管道中的情况则研究较少。与实验室规模的反应器相比，在污水管道中进行的实验具有提供更真实的生物标志物稳定性的优势，这是由于其具有流动和生物动力学特性。本研究评估了七种非法药物生物标志物化合物在中试规模升流主管和重力污水管道中的迁移和转化。生物标志物在中试污水中呈现出不同的稳定性模式，在此基础上对药物转化模型进行了校准。随后，使用文献中的转化数据集对该模型进行了验证，旨在证明在不同污水条件下基于中试的转化系数的可预测性。此外，还从四项研究中生成了五个研究的生物标志物的转化系数，并使用性能统计数据共同评估了它们在中试污水条件下的预测能力。该转化模型成功地模拟了大多数非法药物在污水中的稳定性。然而，需要进一步研究来阐明那些具有潜在形成的化合物的来源和途径，以便在转化模型中进行模拟。总体而言，使用中试污水数据校准的转化模型是污水流行病学应用的可靠工具。
