School of Engineering, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248007, India.
Discipline of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar, 382355, Gujarat, India.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Oct 15;320:115703. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115703. Epub 2022 Aug 3.
The global production of PPCPs have increased by multiple folds promoting excessive exposure of its metabolites to humans via different aquatic systems. The higher residence time of toxic precursors of these metabolites pose direct human health risk. Among the different aquatic systems, the contamination of groundwater by PPCPs is the most concerning threat. This threat is especially critical considering the lesser oxidizing potential of the groundwater as compared to freshwater/river water. A major challenge also arises due to excessive dependency of the world's population on groundwater, which is exponentially increasing with time. This makes the identification and characterization of spatial contamination hotspots highly probabilistic as compared to other freshwater systems. The situation is more vulnerable in developing countries where there is a reported inadequacy of wastewater treatment facilities, thereby forcing the groundwater to behave as the only available sequestrating sink for all these contaminants. With increased consumption of antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals compounds, these wastes have proven capability in terms of enhancing the resistance among the biotic community of the soil systems, which ultimately can become catastrophic and carcinogenic in near future. Recent studies are supporting the aforementioned concern where compounds like diclofenac (analgesic) have attained a concentration of 1.3 mgL in the aquifer systems of Delhi, India. The situation is far worse for developed nations where prolonged and indiscriminate usage of antidepressants and antibiotics have life threating consequences. It has been confirmed that certain compounds like ofloxacin (antibiotics) and bis-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate are present in some of the most sensitive wells/springs of the United States and Mexico. The current trend of the situation has been demonstrated by integrating a comparative approach of the published literatures in last three years. This review provides first-hand information report for formulating a directive policy framework for tackling PPCPs issues in the groundwater system.
全球 PPCPs 的生产量呈多倍增长，通过不同的水生系统将其代谢物过度暴露于人类。这些代谢物的有毒前体停留时间更长，直接对人类健康构成威胁。在不同的水生系统中，地下水受到 PPCPs 的污染是最令人担忧的威胁。考虑到与淡水/河水相比，地下水的氧化潜力较小，这种威胁尤其严重。由于世界人口对地下水的过度依赖，这也是一个主要的挑战，而且这种依赖随着时间的推移呈指数增长。与其他淡水系统相比，这使得识别和描述空间污染热点的可能性更高。在发展中国家，情况更加脆弱，这些国家报告缺乏废水处理设施，因此迫使地下水成为所有这些污染物的唯一可用隔离汇。随着抗生素和其他药物化合物的消耗增加，这些废物已经证明了它们在增强土壤系统中生物群落的抗药性方面的能力，这最终在不久的将来可能会变得灾难性和致癌性。最近的研究支持了上述担忧，印度德里含水层系统中，一种名为双氯芬酸（一种止痛药）的化合物浓度达到了 1.3mg/L。对于发达国家来说，情况要糟糕得多，因为长期和无差别地使用抗抑郁药和抗生素会带来危及生命的后果。已经证实，某些化合物，如氧氟沙星（抗生素）和双（2-乙基己基）邻苯二甲酸酯，存在于美国和墨西哥一些最敏感的水井/泉水。通过整合过去三年发表的文献的比较方法，展示了当前的情况趋势。本综述提供了第一手信息报告，为制定地下水系统中 PPCPs 问题的指令性政策框架提供了依据。
