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Residues of drugs in the water can hardly be eliminated
Over the past few years, drug residues in the water have been repeatedly detected in numerous studies. Although new methods are being used, the elimination of such residues is generally considered to be difficult and expensive. The fact that the causes can be found among other things in the high drug consumption and incorrect disposal, is well known. But what to do?
Drug residues even in drinking water
For years, an often extremely dangerous high proportion of drug residues in water has been detected over and over again. And even our drinking water is often burdened. For example, the magazine "Öko-Test" demonstrated MRI contrast media in drinking water in several cities last year. More and more people ask themselves the question what can be done against the impurities. According to researchers, the reduction of pharmaceutical residues in the water cycle would only be possible with great technical and financial effort. This also applies to other chemicals.
Residues of medicines are difficult to remove from water. (Image: kreativloft GmbH / fotolia.com) Do not dispose of residues via the wastewater
According to a report by the dpa news agency, the Technische Universität Berlin (TU) and the Berliner Wasserbetriebe have announced that two technical projects will not be able to eliminate all known substances. Like other experts in the past, the Berliners appealed to consumers not to dispose of unnecessary paint, fertilizer, other chemicals and medicine leftovers in the drain. "We recognize that we are dealing with a number of substances that can not be completely removed in sewage treatment plants," said project leader Prof. Martin Jekel (TU Berlin) to the German Press Agency. It is about 50 to 100 substances, especially from drugs. The quantities measured so far varied, also depending on the location in the water cycle. Jekel explained that legal targets were missing so far.
Wrong disposal and human excretions
Thanks also to improved measuring technology, the traces have been detected for several years. The cause, according to the information, is human waste and incorrect disposal. It has long been criticized that many consumers have little knowledge about drug disposal and often do not know that they (co-) cause the problem. Particularly in urban areas, increasing concentrations in rivers are expected in the future, partly because of the aging population. This also affects the groundwater to a lesser extent. So far, it is only documented for individual substances that they can be harmful to animals. The consequences in humans, however, are largely unclear.
Some sewage algae have already been retrofitted
The researchers tested plants in the Berliner Wasserbetriebe, for example, processes with ozone and powder activated carbon, which could be used in the future as an additional purification stage in sewage treatment plants. "They are well suited, but not completely comparable," Jekel explained. However, which processes would actually be considered depends on which substances are given priority in water protection in future legal regulations. In particular, the widely used painkiller diclofenac and the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole should be for Jekel: "It looks like that future target values are exceeded." In some federal states such as Baden-Württemberg sewage treatment plants have already retrofitted and in Switzerland is doing a lot. In Berlin, research is followed, among other things, by a large-scale technical test in a plant in which surface water is processed: from the end of the year, a powdered activated carbon silo is to retain trace substances there. (Ad)