State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Key Laboratory of Yangtze Water Environment, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, China; Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93117, USA.
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Key Laboratory of Yangtze Water Environment, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Nov 20;744:140977. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140977. Epub 2020 Jul 15.
Water reclamation and ecological reuse is gradually becoming a popular solution to address the high pollutant loads and insufficient ecological flow of many urban rivers. However, emerging contaminants in water reuse system and associated human health and ecological risks need to be assessed. This study determined the occurrence and human health and ecological risk assessments of 35 emerging contaminants during one year, including 5 types of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), 5 pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), 7 endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and 18 disinfection by-products (DBPs), in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and receiving rivers, as well as an unimpacted river for comparison. Results showed that most of PPCPs and EDCs, especially antibiotics, triclosan, estrogens and bisphenol A, occurred frequently at relatively high concentrations, and they were removed from 20.5% to 88.7% with a mean of 58.9% via WWTP. The highest potential noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic risks in different reuse scenarios were assessed using maximal detected concentrations, all below the acceptable risk limits, with the highest total combined risk value of 9.21 × 10 and 9.98 × 10, respectively. Ecological risk assessment was conducted using risk quotient (RQ) method and indicated that several PPCPs, EDCs and haloacetonitriles (HANs) pose high risk (RQ > 1) to aquatic ecology in the rivers, with the highest RQ up to 83.8. The study suggested that ecological risks need to be urgently addressed by updating and optimizing the process in WWTPs to strengthen the removal efficiencies of emerging contaminants. The study can serve as a reference for safer water reuse in the future, while further studies could be conducted on the health risk of specific groups of people, exposure parameters in water reuse, as well as more emerging contaminants.
污水再生和生态回用逐渐成为解决许多城市河流中污染物负荷高和生态流量不足的一种流行解决方案。然而，需要评估水再利用系统中出现的新兴污染物以及相关的人类健康和生态风险。本研究在一年时间内，对污水处理厂（WWTP）和受纳河流以及一条未受影响的河流中 35 种新兴污染物的发生情况及其对人类健康和生态风险进行了评估，包括 5 种持久性有机污染物（POPs）、5 种药物和个人护理产品（PPCPs）、7 种内分泌干扰物（EDCs）和 18 种消毒副产物（DBPs）。结果表明，大多数 PPCPs 和 EDCs，特别是抗生素、三氯生、雌激素和双酚 A，经常以相对较高的浓度出现，通过 WWTP 去除了 20.5%至 88.7%，平均去除率为 58.9%。在不同的再利用情景下，采用最大检出浓度评估非致癌和致癌风险，均低于可接受的风险限值，总综合风险值最高分别为 9.21×10和 9.98×10。采用风险商（RQ）法进行生态风险评估，结果表明，河流中几种 PPCPs、EDCs 和卤乙腈（HANs）对水生生态系统构成高风险（RQ＞1），风险最高可达 83.8。研究建议，迫切需要通过更新和优化 WWTP 工艺来解决生态风险问题，以提高新兴污染物的去除效率。本研究可为今后更安全的水再利用提供参考，同时可进一步研究特定人群的健康风险、水再利用中的暴露参数以及更多的新兴污染物。
