Department of Chemistry, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, P.O Box 60, Medunsa, 0204, South Africa.
Department of Chemistry, Durban University of Technology, P O Box 1334, Durban, 4000, South Africa.
J Environ Manage. 2023 Nov 1;345:118621. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118621. Epub 2023 Jul 20.
The increased usage of antibiotics over the recent years has led to an increased interest in monitoring their presence in wastewater all over the world. In this study the occurrence of sixteen (16) selected antibiotics (amoxicillin, ampicillin, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, erythromycin, gentamicin, metronidazole, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, penicillin, sulfamethoxazole, sulfapyridine, sulfamethizole, tetracycline and trimethoprim) were determined in two wastewater treatment plants and two effluent receiving rivers in Northern part of Pretoria, South Africa. Targeted screening and identification of antibiotics was done using ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry after sample clean-up and pre-concentration using solid phase extraction. The concentrations of the targeted antibiotics detected in influent samples ranged between 0.78 and 96.8 ng mL and those in effluent were between 0.12 and 9.89 ng mL. The highest recorded concentrations in all samples were those of doxycycline (30.9-120 ng mL) and sulfamethoxazole (2.52-96.8 ng mL) in effluent and influent samples, respectively. The concentrations of antibiotics in the rivers receiving effluents were between 0.03 and 72.8 ng mL in upstream samples and 0.008-76.8 ng mL in downstream samples, indicating that there is other source of contaminate to these rivers other than the treatment plants. Risk assessment using the hazard quotients ranged between 0.24 and 889 indicating that the presence of these antibiotics and antibiotic mixtures posed higher ecological risks to aquatic organisms. From the study, it could be concluded that wastewater treatment plants were releasing antibiotics to the environment and posing a risk to the aquatic ecosystem and public health. Therefore, there is a need to research into developing more efficient conventional wastewater treatment technologies that can completely remove antibiotics from wastewater.
近年来，抗生素的使用量不断增加，因此人们越来越关注全球范围内监测废水中抗生素的存在情况。在这项研究中，我们在南非比勒陀利亚北部的两个污水处理厂和两个废水接收河流中检测到了十六种（16 种）选定的抗生素（阿莫西林、氨苄西林、阿奇霉素、环丙沙星、强力霉素、红霉素、庆大霉素、甲硝唑、诺氟沙星、氧氟沙星、青霉素、磺胺甲恶唑、磺胺嘧啶、磺胺甲基异恶唑、四环素和甲氧苄啶）。使用超高效液相色谱-质谱联用技术，在固相萃取进行样品净化和预浓缩后，对抗生素进行靶向筛选和鉴定。在进水样本中检测到的目标抗生素浓度范围为 0.78 至 96.8ng/mL，而在出水样本中的浓度范围为 0.12 至 9.89ng/mL。所有样本中记录的最高浓度均为出水和进水样本中的强力霉素（30.9-120ng/mL）和磺胺甲恶唑（2.52-96.8ng/mL）。接收废水的河流中，上游样本中的抗生素浓度范围为 0.03 至 72.8ng/mL，下游样本中的浓度范围为 0.008 至 76.8ng/mL，这表明除了污水处理厂之外，还有其他污染源污染了这些河流。使用危害商数进行风险评估的结果范围在 0.24 至 889 之间，这表明这些抗生素和抗生素混合物的存在对水生生物构成了更高的生态风险。从研究中可以得出结论，污水处理厂正在将抗生素释放到环境中，并对水生生态系统和公众健康构成风险。因此，有必要研究开发更有效的传统废水处理技术，以从废水中完全去除抗生素。
