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Evaluation of psychiatric hospital wastewater toxicity: what is its impact on aquatic organisms?

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Abstract

The primary source of pharmaceuticals to the aquatic environment is the discharge of wastewater effluents. Pharmaceuticals are a large and diverse group of compounds. Among them, psychotropic substances are particularly interesting to study due to their specific known mode of action. The present study was performed to investigate the effects of wastewater effluents from a psychiatric hospital wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) on several aquatic organisms. All the analyzed pharmaceuticals (10 compounds) were detected in WWTP effluents as well as in the receiving river. Although the environmental concentrations were generally at trace levels (ng L−1 to μg L−1), induce toxic effects were observed. This study showed the effects of the WWTP effluents on the oogenesis and/or embryogenesis of amphipod crustacean Gammarus fossarum, Japanese fish medaka Oryzias latipes, mollusk Radix peregra, and planarian Schmidtea polychroa. A decrease of the number of oocytes and produced embryos was observed for G. fossarum and S. polychroa. Similarly, the hatching rate of R. peregra was affected by effluents. In the receiving river, the macroinvertebrate community was affected by the wastewater effluents discharge.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Maria Gonzales for English proofreading.

Funding

This work was supported by ANSES, the Adour-Garonne Water Agency, and the Midi-Pyrénées region.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Biochimie et Toxicologie des Substances Bioactives (EA BTSB 7417), University of Toulouse, INU Champollion, Albi, France

    Jean-Yves Mazzitelli, Pierre Marty, Elsa Bonnafe & Florence Geret

  2. EPOC UMR 5805, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France

    Hélène Budzinski, Jérôme Cachot & Axelle Chiffre

  3. Irstea, UR MALY (Freshwater Systems, Ecology and Pollution), Villeurbanne, France

    Olivier Geffard & Adeline François

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  1. Jean-Yves Mazzitelli
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  2. Hélène Budzinski
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  3. Jérôme Cachot
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  4. Olivier Geffard
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  5. Pierre Marty
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  6. Axelle Chiffre
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  7. Adeline François
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  8. Elsa Bonnafe
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  9. Florence Geret
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Correspondence to Florence Geret.

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Mazzitelli, JY., Budzinski, H., Cachot, J. et al. Evaluation of psychiatric hospital wastewater toxicity: what is its impact on aquatic organisms?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 26090–26102 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2501-5

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