AWWA WQTC58980

In recent years, there has been growing concern about the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in surface waters. Surface waters are widely used as a water resource for drinking water production and so far it is not clear to what extent these compounds are removed during water treatment processes. The objective of this study was to assess the elimination of pharmaceuticals during ozonation. A list of nine pharmaceuticals, including the antibiotics sulfamethoxazole and roxithromycin and the endocrine disruptor 17+/- -ethinylestradiol (EE2), were investigated. In the first part of the study, it could be shown that many pharmaceuticals react very quickly with ozone. However, the ozonation of these compounds leads to the formation of oxidation products, because full mineralization does not occur with common ozone doses applied in drinking water treatment. It cannot be completely ruled out that these oxidation products still produce the intended medicinal or other biological effects. Therefore, it is important to identify major oxidation products and test them at least for the medicinal effect of the parent compound. In the second part of this study, EE2 was selected to investigate the formation of oxidation products during ozonation. The estrogenic activity of the oxidation products was assessed using a yeast estrogen screen (YES). Includes 6 references, table.