Occurrence of antibiotics in pharmaceutical industrial wastewater, wastewater treatment plant and sea waters in Tunisia

Antibiotics are among the most commonly used group of pharmaceuticals in human medicine. They can therefore reach surface and groundwater bodies through different routes, such as wastewater treatment plant effluents, surface runoff, or infiltration of water used for agricultural purposes. It is well...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of water and health Vol. 14; no. 2; pp. 208 - 213
Main Authors: Tahrani, Leyla, Van Loco, Joris, Ben Mansour, Hedi, Reyns, Tim
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England IWA Publishing 01.04.2016
Subjects:
Agricultural management
Aminoglycoside antibiotics
Aminoglycosides
Analytical chemistry
Anti-Bacterial Agents - analysis
Antibiotics
Antimicrobial agents
Aquaculture
Chemical analysis
Chloramphenicol
Chromatography
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
Drug Industry
Effluents
Environmental Monitoring
Environmental risk
Florfenicol
Gentamicin
Gram-positive bacteria
Groundwater
Groundwater treatment
Industrial wastes
Industrial wastewater
Infiltration
Influents
Kanamycin
Low concentrations
Mass spectrometry
Municipal wastewater
Neomycin
Personal grooming
Pharmaceuticals
Runoff
Scientific imaging
Seawater
Seawater - analysis
Site selection
Streptomycin
Surface runoff
Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Tunisia
Veterinary medicine
Waste Disposal, Fluid
Waste Water - analysis
Wastewater
Wastewater treatment
Wastewater treatment plants
Water analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis
Water sampling
Water treatment
Water treatment plants
Tunisia
United States > US
MED, Tunisia
ISSN:1477-8920, 1996-7829
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Antibiotics are among the most commonly used group of pharmaceuticals in human medicine. They can therefore reach surface and groundwater bodies through different routes, such as wastewater treatment plant effluents, surface runoff, or infiltration of water used for agricultural purposes. It is well known that antibiotics pose a significant risk to environmental and human health, even at low concentrations. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the presence of aminoglycosides and phenicol antibiotics in municipal wastewaters, sea water and pharmaceutical effluents in Tunisia. All analysed water samples contained detectable levels of aminoglycoside and phenicol antibiotics. The highest concentrations in wastewater influents were observed for neomycin and kanamycin B (16.4ng mL−1 and 7.5 ng mL−1, respectively). Chloramphenicol was found in wastewater influents up to 3 ng mL−1. It was observed that the waste water treatment plants were not efficient in completely removing these antibiotics. Chloramphenicol and florfenicol were found in sea water samples near aquaculture sites at levels up to, respectively, 15.6 ng mL−1 and 18.4 ng mL−1. Also aminoglycoside antibiotics were found near aquaculture sites with the highest concentration of 3.4 ng mL−1 for streptomycin. In pharmaceutical effluents, only gentamycin was found at concentrations up to 19 ng mL−1 over a sampling period of four months.
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ISSN:1477-8920
1996-7829
DOI:10.2166/wh.2015.224