Presence, removal, and risks of psychopharmaceuticals in wastewater streams

Psychopharmaceuticals are used to treat psychological disorders and other conditions relating to the nervous system and are known to affect nontarget organisms at low concentrations. Their occurrence in the water cycle remains an understudied topic, with data lacking for many compounds, and risks not accounted for in removal targets. Therefore, this study aimed to provide insights into the presence, removal, and risks of psychopharmaceuticals in wastewater. Furthermore, the use of risk assessment in the context of proposed legislation is discussed. Thirty highly used psychopharmaceuticals were studied during 1 week in the wastewater of the Amsterdam West Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) using solid phase extraction and ultra high performance liquid chromatography–quadrupole time of flight–high resolution mass spectrometry. Twenty target compounds were detected in the influent (17 ng–99 µg/L) and 16 in the effluent (34 ng/L–17 µg/L). Removal efficiencies during treatment ranged from 24% to >99%. Paracetamol, amphetamine, fluoxetine, levetiracetam, phenacetin, and sertraline demonstrated almost complete removal, whereas tramadol, lidocaine, lamotrigine, fluvoxamine, and carbamazepine had removals below 50%, with lidocaine demonstrating the lowest removal (24%). Utilizing existing ecotoxicity data, a preliminary risk assessment was performed to contextualize the calculated removal efficiencies. Here, sertraline and ibuprofen still demonstrated a potential risk, despite high removal efficiencies of both compounds. This study highlights that wastewater contains abundant numbers and ecotoxicologically relevant concentrations of psychopharmaceuticals that are insufficiently removed by the WWTP. The implementation of risk-based removal targets in legislation is discussed to facilitate the reduction in emissions of psychopharmaceuticals, for example, by adequate WWTP upgrades with advanced treatments to ensure a toxic-free environment.