AWWA WQTC71515

This paper discusses the MEDIFLUX study to evaluate the sewage contamination of hospitals, and to quantify and model the loads of hospital pharmaceuticals contamination into urban wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) influents. Such a model is required to evaluate the relative importance of hospital sewage in the pharmaceuticals pollution of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and/or water resources, to develop more effective wastewater treatments, maybe on-site, to perform risk assessments or to assess human/environmental exposures. However, this model needs to be developed and validated by comparison with concentrations data really measured in different hospital effluents. This is done in three French hospitals. Includes 26 references, tables, figures.