Pharmaceutically active compounds in water, Aksaray, Turkey

Pharmaceuticallyactivecompounds(PACs)arewidelyusedaroundtheworldtomaintainhuman and animal health. Thereis growing concern that thesecompounds pass throughsewage-treatment plants and enter the environment for potential harmful effects onliving things. In this study, the occurrence of nine PACs (acetaminophen, caffeine,carbamazepine, codeine, methyltestosterone, metoprolol, propranolol, stanozolol, andtestosterone) in hospital wastewater, sewage wastewater, raw water used for drinkingwater,andtreatedwaterwasstudiedinthreesamplingeventsrepresentingdifferentflowconditions,i.e.,December,April,andJune2010–2011.Mostofthetargetcompoundsweredetected in both hospital and sewage wastewater samples rather than in drinking watersamples. The most frequently detected compounds in the samples were acetaminophenandcaffeine with increased concentrations of upto160mg/L insewage wastewater, whiletheirconcentrationsweresignificantlylowerinrawwater.Generally,aseasonalvariationof the test compounds in the samples was significant. All drugs were detected in higherlevels during winter as drug use for diseases might increase through this season and afaster degradation and removal might occur during summer. The results showed thatwaterhadbeenpollutedwiththesesubstances,andalthoughpurifiedbywatertreatment,reached humans via drinking water