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Occurrence of pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, and resistant types of bacteria in hospital effluent and their effective degradation by boron-doped diamond electrodes

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Abstract

Wastewaters are considered as a significant source of pathogenic microorganisms and a wide spectrum of pharmaceuticals. Disinfecting agents and antibiotics in these wastewaters can directly or indirectly influence the genetic composition of the present microorganisms and thus the occurrence of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. In this study, we have investigated the composition of wastewaters from two Slovak and one Czech hospital. Using in-line solid phase extraction liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (in-line-SPE–LC–MS/MS), we monitored the occurrence of 29 pharmaceuticals, illegal drugs and their metabolites and resistant types of microorganisms. It was found that cotinine (max 1980 ng/dm3), tramadol (max 1570 ng/dm3), venlafaxine (max 248 ng/dm3), codeine (max 136 ng/dm3), oxazepam (max 113 ng/dm3), and oxycodone (max 102 ng/dm3) belong to the group of the most concentrated compounds. The number of coliform bacteria ranged from 5.5 to 7 log CFU/cm3, while majority of strains were ampicillin, gentamicin, and ciprofloxacin resistant. The number of Staphylococcus aureus was lower (2.7–3.8 log CFU/cm3), with predominance of ampicillin and penicillin resistants. In the next part of the study, the possibility of the application of boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes connected as anode for hospital wastewaters treatment was investigated. The obtained results indicate that the BDD anode is able to degrade a large scale of analyzed pharmaceuticals and drugs occurred in wastewaters with more than 60 % efficiency in 30 min.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contracts No. APVV-0122-12 and No. APVV-0365-12, Vedecká grantová agentúra Ministerstva školstva, vedy, výskumu a športu Slovenskej republiky a Slovenskej akadémie vied VEGA grant 1/0400/15 and VEGA 1/0543/15, and the CENAKVA CZ.1.05/2.1.00/01.0024 project, the project LO1205 with a financial support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under the NPU I program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Institute of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 812 37, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Tomáš Mackuľak

  2. Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Institute of Electronics and Photonics, Slovak University of Technology, Ilkovičova 3, 812 19, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Marian Vojs

  3. Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, South Bohemian Research Centre of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, Zatisi 728/II, 389 01, Vodnany, Czech Republic

    Roman Grabic & Oksana Golovko

  4. Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina – Ilkovičova 6, 842 15, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Andrea Vojs Staňová

  5. Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Institute of Biochemistry, Nutrition and Health Protection, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 812 37, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Lucia Birošová & Alžbeta Medveďová

  6. Department of Inorganic Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 812 37, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Ján Híveš & Miroslav Gál

  7. Institute of Physics of the ASCR, v.v.i. Cukrovarnicka 10, 162 00, Prague, Czech Republic

    Alexander Kromka

  8. Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinskeho 11, 810 05, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Anna Hanusová

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  1. Tomáš Mackuľak
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  2. Marian Vojs
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  3. Roman Grabic
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  4. Oksana Golovko
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  6. Lucia Birošová
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Correspondence to Tomáš Mackuľak.

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Mackuľak, T., Vojs, M., Grabic, R. et al. Occurrence of pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, and resistant types of bacteria in hospital effluent and their effective degradation by boron-doped diamond electrodes. Monatsh Chem 147, 97–103 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00706-015-1582-9

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