(cest2017_00425) Risk assessment associated with the presence of emerging organic contaminants released from wastewater treatment plants in sludge amended soil and effects on terrestrial life: Greece as a case study

摘要

The purpose of this study was to estimate theenvironmental risk associated with the existence of 99emerging organic contaminants released from municipalwastewater in the terrestrial environment. Chemicalanalyses were carried out for 50 pharmaceuticals and illicitdrugs; whereas a literature review was held to record theconcentration levels of the target compounds in sewagesludge. Risk assessment was based on both terrestrial andaquatic toxicity data. An extensive literature review wasalso conducted in order to record the experimental acutetoxicity data of these compounds (EC50/LC50 values). Incases that no experimental toxicity data was available,ECOSAR model (U.S. EPA) was used. According to theresults, triclosan presented the highest possibility forecological threat both in terrestrial and aquatic data basedrisk assessment. Additionally, another 11 organicmicropollutants, belonging to the groups ofpharmaceuticals, synthetic phenolic compounds, siloxanesand benzothiazoles, exhibited environmental hazard, astheir RQ values exceeded 1. Illicit drugs, perfluorinatedcompounds and benzotriazoles presented no environmentalrisk for the terrestrial organisms. The estimated threat dueto nonylphenolic compounds seemed to be affected by thesludge source and the day of sampling, while these factorsdid not affect the risk presented by the rest of thecompounds.