School of Civil Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Aug;27(22):28006-28015. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-09083-7. Epub 2020 May 13.
The occurrence, seasonal variation, and environmental impact of five widely used parabens, methyl-(MeP), ethyl-(EtP), n-propyl-(n-PrP), n-butyl-(n-BuP), and benzyl-(BzP) parabens, were investigated in a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) located in Guangzhou, China, for 1 year. The concentrations of ∑parabens in the influent and the effluent were 94.2-957 and 0.89-14.7 ng L, respectively. The influent paraben concentrations in autumn were significantly lower than in winter, spring, and summer, and the concentrations were generally higher in spring. The removal efficiencies of ∑parabens in the dissolved phase were over 96%, with high efficiencies in MeP, EtP, and n-PrP. Risk assessment indicated that parabens in the effluent were not likely to pose an environmental risk to aquatic ecosystems. The present study indicates that the treatment processes employed in full-scale WWTPs are effective at removing parabens and highlights the possibility of utilizing WWTPs for restoring water quality in riverine and coastal regions heavily impacted by paraben contamination.
本研究在中国广州的一个城市污水处理厂（WWTP）中对 5 种广泛使用的对羟基苯甲酸酯（MeP、EtP、n-PrP、n-BuP 和 BzP）进行了为期 1 年的检测，包括它们的发生情况、季节性变化及其环境影响。进水和出水中的∑ 对羟基苯甲酸酯浓度分别为 94.2-957 和 0.89-14.7 ng/L。秋季进水的对羟基苯甲酸酯浓度明显低于冬季、春季和夏季，而春季的浓度通常较高。∑ 对羟基苯甲酸酯在溶解相中去除率超过 96%，MeP、EtP 和 n-PrP 的去除效率较高。风险评估表明，出水中的对羟基苯甲酸酯不太可能对水生生态系统造成环境风险。本研究表明，全规模 WWTP 中采用的处理工艺对去除对羟基苯甲酸酯非常有效，并强调了利用 WWTP 来恢复受对羟基苯甲酸酯污染严重的河流水域和沿海水域水质的可能性。
