Exploring the correlations between epi indicators of COVID-19 and the concentration of pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater treatment plants in Northern Portugal.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus led to changes in the lifestyle and human behaviour, which resulted in different consumption patterns of some classes of pharmaceuticals including curative, symptom-relieving, and psychotropic drugs. The trends in the consumption of these compounds are related to their concentrations in wastewater systems, since incompletely metabolised drugs (or their metabolites back transformed into the parental form) may be detected and quantified by analytical methods. Pharmaceuticals are highly recalcitrant compounds and conventional activated sludge processes implemented in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are ineffective at degrading these substances. As a results, these compounds end up in waterways or accumulate in the sludge, being a serious

SUBMITTER: Silva AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10171898 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature