| Abstract: | Examination of the Degradation of Drugs in Municipal Sewage Plants Using Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Mass Spectrometry Numerous drugs can be identified in the secondary effluent of municipal sewage plants. In order to obtain information about the degree of elimination (adsorption, aerobic degradation) of these compounds, a batch reactor containing different drugs in environmentally relevant concentrations and a suspension of activated sludge was coupled to a HPLC-MS-MS system. During a testing period of three days concentration-time-curves were recorded. For most of the examined drugs (acetamidoantipyrine, crotamiton, diclofenac, primidone, propyphenazone) solely a strong decrease of the initial concentration within the first 15 minutes was observed, which was interpreted primarily as adsorption to the activated sludge. For acetaminophenol and pentoxifyllin an additional slower decrease in concentration within several hours was observed. This slower elimination was interpreted to be caused mainly by primary degradation. It could be shown that dihydrocodeine is oxidized to hydrocodone in the batch reactor. The conjugate acetaminophen glucuronide was cleaved. |
