Juliana Heloisa Pinê Américo-Pinheiro

Bio: Juliana Heloisa Pinê Américo-Pinheiro is an academic researcher from Sao Paulo State University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Medicine & Adsorption. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 29 publications receiving 108 citations. Previous affiliations of Juliana Heloisa Pinê Américo-Pinheiro include Camilo Castelo Branco University (Universidade Brasil).

Assessment of water quality using principal component analysis: a case study of the Marrecas stream basin in Brazil.

Abstract: Monitoring water quality is a fundamental process to ensure proper anthropogenic usage and environmental protection of this resource. This study collected monthly measurements of 9 parameters (pH, Temperature, BOD, Total Solids, Thermotolerant Coliforms, Dissolved Oxygen, Total Nitrogen and Total Phosphorus) in 5 sampling stations along the Marrecas water stream, during a 1-year period. Temporal and seasonal variations were analyzed and interpreted for each element, explaining how specific geographical and anthropogenic factors affected the water body. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to evaluate each element's correlation and to reduce the number of parameters, easing the assessment of water quality for each location. Results were followed by the creation of an improved index for the region, which could better estimate the quality of water, only considering 4 of the original parameters. It was also recognized that each water body possesses several subtleties that impact on how its water quality should be measured and indexed into a single value, which validates the case for the creation of regional WQI's.

Environmental toxicology and risk assessment of pharmaceuticals from hospital wastewater

Abstract: In this paper, we evaluated the ecotoxicological potential of the 100 pharmaceuticals expected to occur in highest quantities in the wastewater of a general hospital and a psychiatric center in Switzerland. We related the toxicity data to predicted concentrations in different wastewater streams to assess the overall risk potential for different scenarios, including conventional biological pretreatment in the hospital and urine source separation. The concentrations in wastewater were estimated with pharmaceutical usage information provided by the hospitals and literature data on human excretion into feces and urine. Environmental concentrations in the effluents of the exposure scenarios were predicted by estimating dilution in sewers and with literature data on elimination during wastewater treatment. Effect assessment was performed using quantitative structure-activity relationships because experimental ecotoxicity data were only available for less than 20% of the 100 pharmaceuticals with expected highest loads. As many pharmaceuticals are acids or bases, a correction for the speciation was implemented in the toxicity prediction model. The lists of Top-100 pharmaceuticals were distinctly different between the two hospital types with only 37 pharmaceuticals overlapping in both datasets. 31 Pharmaceuticals in the general hospital and 42 pharmaceuticals in the psychiatric center had a risk quotient above 0.01 and thus contributed to the mixture risk quotient. However, together they constituted only 14% (hospital) and 30% (psychiatry) of the load of pharmaceuticals. Hence, medical consumption data alone are insufficient predictors of environmental risk. The risk quotients were dominated by amiodarone, ritonavir, clotrimazole, and diclofenac. Only diclofenac is well researched in ecotoxicology, while amiodarone, ritonavir, and clotrimazole have no or very limited experimental fate or toxicity data available. The presented computational analysis thus helps setting priorities for further testing. Separate treatment of hospital wastewater would reduce the pharmaceutical load of wastewater treatment plants, and the risk from the newly identified priority pharmaceuticals. However, because high-risk pharmaceuticals are excreted mainly with feces, urine source separation is not a viable option for reducing the risk potential from hospital wastewater, while a sorption step could be beneficial.