Comparison of analytical and theoretical pharmaceutical concentrations in human urine in Germany

Urine is considered as a valuable plant fertiliser due to its high nutrient content. However, urine also contains pharmaceuticals. Currently, little is known regarding expected pharmaceutical concentrations in urine and the resulting risks. Through series of analyses in Hamburg and Berlin and result...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water research (Oxford) 2008-08, Vol.42 (14), p.3633-3640
Main Authors: Winker, Martina, Tettenborn, Felix, Faika, Daniela, Gulyas, Holger, Otterpohl, Ralf
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
calibration
chemical concentration
correlation
drug residues
Drug Residues - analysis
drugs
Environmental Monitoring
Exact sciences and technology
Germany
Humans
model validation
Modelling
Other industrial wastes. Sewage sludge
Pharmaceutical Preparations - urine
Pharmaceuticals
Pollution
population density
Prediction
risk assessment
sewage
sewage treatment
simulation models
Urine
Waste Disposal, Fluid
Wastes
Water Pollutants, Chemical - chemistry
Water Pollutants, Chemical - urine
Water treatment and pollution
Yellowwater
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Urine is considered as a valuable plant fertiliser due to its high nutrient content. However, urine also contains pharmaceuticals. Currently, little is known regarding expected pharmaceutical concentrations in urine and the resulting risks. Through series of analyses in Hamburg and Berlin and results from the development of a concentration prediction model this knowledge gap was intended to be filled. To which extent the theoretical calculations can substitute analyses of pharmaceuticals was also tested. Results showed that the model fits well for bezafibrate, carbamazepine, diclofenac, ibuprofen, phenazone, and pentoxifylline. In Hamburg an R 2 value of 0.98 and in Berlin of 0.90 was achieved for correlations between predicted and analysed concentrations. Additionally, it was shown that a sufficient number of people discharging their urine to the respective collection system are important to allow for reasonable predictions via calculation. Also, comparisons of predicted pharmaceutical concentrations to those determined in other projects showed good correlations. Overall, it can be concluded that in any case the calculated concentrations exceed the measured ones and are therefore conservative. This overestimation can be explained by several factors discussed in this article.
ISSN:0043-1354
1879-2448
DOI:10.1016/j.watres.2008.06.002