Percorrer por autor "Mathaba, Hopolang Jonase"
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- The monitoring of pharmaceutical pollutants in wastewater treatment plants in the Algarve, PortugalPublication . Mathaba, Hopolang Jonase; Pinto, Patrícia Isabel Silvestre; Power, DeborahThe occurrence of pharmaceutical compounds in wastewaters of Faro-Olhão and Faro-Noroeste wastewater treatment plants was monitored over summer and winter seasons from 2021 to 2024, to contribute to monitor marine pollution. A total of 26 pharmaceutical pollutants were analysed in the influent wastewater and in treated effluents by liquid-chromatography coupled with tandem mass-spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The results showed quantifiable occurrences of 17 of the 26 pharmaceutical pollutants with outstanding levels of acetaminophen and caffeine (average 50-55 and 63.8-65 μg/L, respectively), and no quantifiable presence of sex hormones or contraceptives. These influent and effluent occurrence concentrations were used to compare the treatment performance between the classical activated sludge and the aerobic granular sludge wastewater treatment systems deployed in Faro-Noroeste and in Faro-Olhão wastewater treatment plants, respectively. The conventional activated sludge treatment exhibited relatively higher treatment efficiencies for most of the monitored pollutants than the aerated granular sludge. The majority of the quantifiable pharmaceutical pollutants were removed effectively by the wastewater treatment plants, with over 60% removal for ten pharmaceutical pollutants in Faro-Noroeste and five in Faro-Olhão. The high occurring caffeine and recalcitrant diclofenac were the only pollutants found at quantifiable levels in the surrounding Ria Formosa environment. Resistance to removal from the wastewater was observed greatly for the anticonvulsants carbamazepine and diclofenac leading to the investigation of carbamazepine, phytoestrogen coumestrol, and wastewater effects on the marine invertebrate Artemia sp. using an immobilisation/lethality assay. The assay showed high toxicity potential for coumestrol and lower for carbamazepine with LC50 values of 39.87 and 94.53 mg/L, respectively, in artificial seawater, and 5.09 and 26.47 mg/L in natural seawater, respectively. The toxicity levels were, however, multiple times (approximately 1.9x104) higher than their existence in the wastewater.