Occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals and personal care products within sewage sludge and sludge-enriched soils

Final Report for the ERTDI-funded project: 2005-FS-30-M1

Summary: STRIVE Report 34 - Leon Barron et al.

The potential threat of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) to the environment has emerged as a topic of concern in recent years. To date, there exists a dearth of analytical methods to empirically determine their occurrence in solid media. This 3-year research and development project focused on a number of topics surrounding the exposure of the terrestrial environment to pharmaceuticals through land spreading of municipal biosolids (sludges) on agricultural land. More specifically, the aims of the project were:

• To identify which PPCPs may occur at significant levels in waste-water treatment sludges
• To develop robust analytical methods for soil and sludge analysis
• To compare any occurrence data with those from a European case study
• To determine the solid–water partition coefficient for all compounds in aqueous sewage sludge and soil suspensions
• To model sorption data in order to identify preferred sorption modes in the environment
• To assess the mobility of such compounds in sewage sludge amended soils after exposure to rainfall.

Also available for download:

• Print-Quality Version (i.e. high resolution PDF) of  STRIVE Report 34
• Summary of Findings - Occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals and personal care products within sewage sludge and sludge-enriched soils

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