Abstract:
Revealing the fate of emerging pollutants in the environment can elucidate their transport, transformation and accumulation patterns in environmental multimedia, providing a scientific basis for precise assessment of ecological and health risks and the development of targeted control strategies. The distribution and transport patterns of four typical pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), including clindamycin (CLD), N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET), roxithromycin (ROX), and trimethoprim (TMP), in environmental multimedia (water, suspended solids, and sediments) in Gansu section of the Weihe River were studied by means of the constructed Level Ⅲ multimedia fugacity model and field sampling analysis. The multimedia fate of typical PPCPs was simulated, and sensitivity analysis and uncertainty analysis methods were used to quantify the reliability of model prediction and identify key influencing parameters. The results showed that: (1) The differences between simulated and measured values of four kinds of PPCPs were within one order of magnitude, and the accuracy of the Level Ⅲ fugacity model was good. (2) The main transport processes between environmental media calculated by the model were advection and degradation. Advection was the main input and removal pathway of PPCPs in aqueous phase, and diffusion from water to suspended solids and deposition from suspended solids to sediments were the main input pathways of PPCPs in suspended and sediment phases. DEET tended to degrade in suspension and diffuse more easily from sediments to water. CLD and ROX were more prone to sediment deposition than the other two PPCPs. TMP was mainly removed by degradation in suspended solids and sediments. (3) Sensitivity study results showed that input concentration of pollutants, partition coefficient of organic carbon, advection input and output of aqueous phase, temperature, organic carbon content in suspended solids and sediments were the main parameters affecting model outputs. Uncertainty analysis showed that the overall change of model parameters had a little effect on the output of water body, but had a great effect on suspended solids and sediments. (4) The results of model scenario simulation showed that reducing PPCPs emissions in the study area and combining sediment control measures to reduce suspended solids content were effective strategies for reducing PPCPs pollution load in the region.