Monitoring of Illicit Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Wastewater: Latest Advances and Prospects
A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 September 2021) | Viewed by 9538
Special Issue Editors
Interests: wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE); monitoring of micropollutants and SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the environment; environmental technologies
Interests: wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE); degradation of micropollutants and viruses in the environment; environmental technologies
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Based on the systematic monitoring of wastewater for selected compounds/biomarkers, the so-called epidemiology of wastewater is currently established, with the task of using the collected data to provide a comprehensive overview of the consumption of legal and illegal or new types of drugs or pharmaceuticals in the selected regions. This information can also be used as a source of information on the health of the population, based on the presence of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites, or in terms of the presence of various microbial pathogens and viruses, or their RNA and DNA. An example is the monitoring of RNA SARS-CoV-2, and thus the definition of the possible onset of a disease wave in a given area or the detection of an outbreak. The epidemiology of wastewater can also be used to monitor the occurrence of new psychoactive substances (NPS) or changes in the drug scene in different regions during the lockdown.
The wastewater treatment system is currently unable to effectively eliminate the occurrence of select illicit drugs and pharmaceuticals, which causes their transfer into the aquatic ecosystem. At this point, it is important to focus on innovative technologies that help us eliminate the problem of wide-range micropollutants in wastewater. Therefore, the main subject of this Special Issue is the monitoring of selected micropollutants/biomarkers/RNA SARS-CoV-2 within the epidemiology of wastewater and the description of new technologies for wastewater treatment in order to eliminate the problem of specific micropollutants. This Special Issue seeks contributions from manuscripts that suggest new strategies and improve our understanding in the area of the monitoring, behavior and elimination of illicit drugs and pharmaceuticals present in wastewater.
Dr. Tomáš Mackuľak
Dr. Miroslav Gál
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE)
- treatment technologies (membranes technology, AOPs, ferrate(VI))
- technologies for water disinfection
- micropollutants
- wastewater treatment plant
- biomarkers
- viruses
- SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19/lockdown
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