Journal ArticleDOI
Caffeine, an Anthropogenic Marker for Wastewater Contamination of Surface Waters
TLDR
Caffeine concentrations in lakes correlated with the anthropogenic burden by domestic wastewaters, demonstrating the suitability of caffeine as a marker.Abstract:
The suitability of caffeine as a chemical marker for surface water pollution by domestic wastewaters was assessed in this study. Caffeine concentrations in influents and effluents of Swiss wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs, 7−73 and 0.03−9.5 μg/L, respectively) indicated an efficient elimination of 81−99.9%. Corresponding loads in untreated wastewater showed small variations when normalized for the population discharging to the WWTPs (15.8 ± 3.8 mg person-1 d-1), reflecting a rather constant consumption. WWTP effluent loads were considerably lower (0.06 ± 0.03 mg person-1 d-1), apart from installations with low sludge age (≤5 d, loads up to 4.4 mg person-1 d-1). Despite the efficient removal in most WWTPs, caffeine was ubiquitously found in Swiss lakes and rivers (6−250 ng/L), except for remote mountain lakes (<2 ng/L; analytical procedure for wastewater and natural waters: SPE, GC−MS−SIM or GC−MS−MS−MRM, internal standard 13C3-labeled caffeine). Caffeine concentrations in lakes correlated with the anth...read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Emerging organic contaminants in groundwater: A review of sources, fate and occurrence
TL;DR: Nanogram-microgram per litre concentrations are present in groundwater for a large range of EOCs as well as metabolites and transformation products and under certain conditions may pose a threat to freshwater bodies for decades due to relatively long groundwater residence times.
Journal ArticleDOI
Occurrence and fate of emerging contaminants in municipal wastewater treatment plants from different geographical regions-a review.
TL;DR: Many antibiotics were detected in the influents and effluents of WWTPs at concentrations close to or exceeding the predicted no-effect concentrations (PNECs) for resistance selection.
Journal ArticleDOI
Occurrence patterns of pharmaceuticals in water and wastewater environments
TL;DR: An overview of recent scientific research on the sources, occurrence, and fate of pharmaceuticals in water and wastewater is provided.
Journal ArticleDOI
Carbamazepine as a possible anthropogenic marker in the aquatic environment: investigations on the behaviour of Carbamazepine in wastewater treatment and during groundwater infiltration.
TL;DR: Groundwater samples at equal distances from the infiltration point were taken to estimate the behaviour of Carbamazepine during soil passage and within the groundwater, therefore qualifying as a suitable marker for anthropogenic influences in the aquatic environment.
Journal ArticleDOI
Transport of Chemical and Microbial Compounds from Known Wastewater Discharges: Potential for Use as Indicators of Human Fecal Contamination
Susan T. Glassmeyer,Edward T. Furlong,Dana W. Kolpin,Jeffery D. Cahill,Steven D. Zaugg,Stephen L. Werner,Michael T. Meyer,David D. Kryak +7 more
TL;DR: This research suggests that selected chemicals are useful as tracers of human wastewater discharge by determining the persistence of a chemically diverse suite of emerging contaminants in streams.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
AQUASIM-a tool for simulation and data analysis of aquatic systems
TL;DR: A survey over the capabilities of a new simulation and data analysis program for laboratory, technical and natural aquatic systems is given that provides methods for system identification (sensitivity analysis and automatic parameter estimation) and allows us to estimate the uncertainty of calculated results.
Journal ArticleDOI
Caffeine and Pharmaceuticals as Indicators of Waste Water Contamination in Wells
TL;DR: In this article, the presence of caffeine or human Pharmaceuticals in ground water with elevated nitrate concentrations can provide a clear, unambiguous indication that domestic waste water is a source of some of the nitrate.
Journal ArticleDOI
Drugs and personal care products as ubiquitous pollutants: occurrence and distribution of clofibric acid, caffeine and DEET in the North Sea
TL;DR: Whereas clofibric acid, caffeine and DEET showed to be present throughout the North Sea in concentrations of up to 1.3, 16 and 1.1 ng/L, respectively, propyphenazone could only be detected after further clean-up, and was below the detection limit in all samples.
Journal ArticleDOI
Development and evaluation of sunlight actinometers.
David. Dulin,Theodore Mill +1 more
TL;DR: Two binary chemical actinometers for sunlight measurements from 300 to 370 nm that have the great advantage of possessing adjustable quantum yields to provide half-lives ranging from a few minutes to several weeks in sunlight are developed and used.
MonographDOI
Pharmaceuticals and Care Products in the Environment: Scientific and Regulatory Issues
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply the current body of knowledge in the study of pharmaceauticals, personal care products and their environmental impact to the assessment of the magnitude and extent of the use of illicit drugs at the local community level.