ANTIBIOTICS IN NEW MEXICO WASTEWATER AND GROUND WATER

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ANTIBIOTICSIN NEW MEXICO WASTEWATER AND GROUND
WATER
New Mexico Environment Department Ground Water
Quality Bureau
New Mexico Department of Health Scientific
Laboratory Division
Timothy Chapman Douglas Mawhinney Rick Meyerhein
Jerzy Kulis Dennis McQuillan
September 22, 2003
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EMERGING THREAT

• Antibiotic residues in natural waters are of
  growing concern worldwide
• up to 90 of pharmaceutical doses pass through
  humans or animals
• many antibiotics are not destroyed by
  conventional wastewater treatment
• have adverse ecological impact (e.g.,
  antibiotic-resistant bacteria)

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MAIN SOURCES

• Homes (treatment, disposal of unused medication)
• Hospitals, nursing homes (treatment, disposal of
  unused medication)
• Animal feeding operations (treatment, growth
  promotion)
• Pharmaceutical manufacturers

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TRANSPORT FATE

• Some antibiotics (e.g., penicillin) easily
  degrade in the environment some (e.g.,
  tetracyclines) resist conventional wastewater
  treatment
• Some antibiotics (e.g., sulfonamides,
  tetracyclines) bind to manure or soil particles
• Subject to photolysis, hydrolysis, redox
  processes, biodegradation, sorption, and
  volatilization
• Ozonation and activated carbon filtration have
  been demonstrated to remove some antibiotics from
  drinking water.

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2000-02 SURVEY OF DRUG RESIDUES IN NM WATERS

• Analgesics, antibiotics (tetracyclines and
  macrolides), anti-convulsants, anti-depressants,
  anti-inflammatory, hormones
• Treated sewage effluent, surface water receiving
  treated sewage effluent, groundwater contaminated
  by sewage, drinking water
• Drug residues detected in 11 out of 15 sewage
  effluent samples and in 4 out of 23 surface water
  samples at low ng/L (ppt) up to 4.6 ug/L (ppb)
  levels
• Antibiotics (oxytetracycline and/or tetracycline)
  detected in 6 sewage effluent samples at levels
  from 0.66 to 4.6 ug/L
• All samples were analyzed by the SLD, except for
  antibiotics

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OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY

• Develop in-state capabilities to analyze
  antibiotics in water samples (SLD)
• Conduct a limited sampling for antibiotics in
  wastewater from different sources and in
  contaminated ground water (NMED)

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DEVELOPMENT OF ANALYTICAL METHODS

• Factors considered in developing a preliminary
  list of antibiotics of interest
• analytical capabilities of the SLD
• availability of laboratory standards
• frequency of occurrence in US waters
• Experimental extractions and analyses resulted in
  a final list of antibiotics of interests
• best combination of recovery rate, accuracy,
  precision, detection limits, and frequency of
  occurrence in US waters

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ANALYTICAL METHODS

• Samples collected into amber-glass bottles, kept
  on ice until delivered to SLD, no preservation
• Extraction from water using Solid Phase
  Extraction (SPE) cartridges at both acidic and
  alkaline pH
• Separation of antibiotics using high performance
  liquid chromatography (HPLC)
• Detection using tandem mass spectroscopy (MS/MS)
  with electrospray ionization (ESI)
• Detection limits at or below 1 ppb

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PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

• Erythromycin appeared to partially dehydrate
  during the analytical process giving rise to
  several products compound removed from the
  preliminary list
• Tetracyclines appear to form complexes with
  metals making them difficult to extract with SPE
• Chlortetracycline gives very poor analytical
  response compound removed from the preliminary
  list
• Different compounds need different pH for optimum
  recovery during SPE (e.g., penicillin G requires
  acidic pH)
• Clogging of the SPE cartridges with dairy
  wastewater samples requires centrifuging

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THE FINAL LIST OF ANTIBIOTICS OF INTEREST

• 11compounds belonging to 6 classes
• Beta-lactams (penicillin G, penicillin V)
• Floroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin,
  ofloxacin)
• Lincosamides (lincomycin)
• Macrolides (tylosin)
• Sulfonamides (trimethoprim, sulfamethazine,
  sulfamethoxazole,)
• Tetracyclines (oxytetracycline)

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SAMPLING LOCATIONS

• Selected based on their potential to have high
  levels of antibiotics in wastewater or ground
  water
• Wastewater from 8 dairies, 5 municipal wastewater
  treatment plants (WWTPs), 2 hospitals, and a
  nursing home
• Ground water from contaminant plumes from 3
  dairies and a WWTP

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DAIRY WASTEWATER SAMPLING RESULTS

• Midway Dairy (Portales) lincomycin 6.6 ug/L
  (ppb)
• J-Lu Dairy (Portales) lincomycin 0.7 ug/L
• Bright Star Dairy, Daybreak Dairy (Vado) - ND
• JM Dairy, Haflinger Dairy (Artesia) ND
• Yorktown Dairy (Roswell) ND
• Cheyenne Dairy (Dexter) - ND

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NON-DAIRY WASTEWATER SAMPLING RESULTS

• Country Cottage (nursing home, Hobbs) ofloxacin
  23.5 ug/L
• Hagerman WWTP - trimethoprim 1.4 ug/L,
  sulfamethoxazole 1.0 mg/L, ofloxacin 0.4 ug/L,
  ciprofloxacin 0.2 ug/L
• Portales WWTP trimethoprim 1.0 ug/L, ofloxacin
  1.0 ug/L, sulfamethoxazole 0.4 ug/L
• Santa Fe WWTP ofloxacin 1.0 ug/L, ciprofloxacin
  1.0 ug/L
• St. Vincent Hospital (Santa Fe) ofloxacin 4.9
  ug/L
• Socorro WWTP ND
• Socorro Hospital ND
• Magdalena WWTP - ND

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GROUND WATERSAMPLING RESULTS

• Bright Star Dairy, Daybreak Dairy (Vado) ND
• JM Dairy (Artesia) ND
• Magdalena WWTP - ND

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DISCUSSION DAIRY WASTEWATER

• No evidence of widespread antibiotic residues
• Only lincomycin was detected (in 2 dairies out of
  8 sampled)
• commonly used to treat foot warts and mastitis in
  lactating cows
• in this study, not detected in human wastewater
• possible use as a tracer of animal wastewater?

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DISCUSSION NON-DAIRY WASTEWATER

• Majority of WWTPs had at least one detectable
  antibiotic
• Ofloxacin present in all facilities that had
  detectable antibiotics
• used to treat urinary tract infections,
  pneumonia, bronchitis, prostate and skin
  infections
• highest levels in wastewater from one hospital
  and a nursing home
• possible use as a tracer of human wastewater?
• Simultaneous detections of trimethoprim and
  sulfamethoxazole match their mode of use
• often used together to treat urinary tract
  infections, pneumonia, protozoan infections, and
  by people with HIV to prevent infections
• suggests a similar fate in the environment

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DISCUSSION GROUND WATER

• No antibiotic detections in ground water from 4
  sampled facilities
• BUT
• None of these facilities had detectable levels of
  antibiotics in wastewater
• Unable to determine if antibiotics can leach into
  ground water

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CONCLUSIONS ANALYTICAL METHODS

• Analytical capabilities for a number of
  antibiotics have been developed by SLD
• Future work
• expand the list of antibiotics that can be
  analyzed, with emphasis on tetracyclines
• lower the detection limits down to low ppt range

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CONCLUSIONS THE SURVEY

• Antibiotics detectable in some dairy wastewater
  but not widespread
• Majority of human wastewater contain antibiotic
  residues
• Ofloxacin and lincomycin should be investigated
  for a possible use as tracers of human and animal
  wastes
• More field sampling is needed to characterize the
  fate of antibiotics in the environment and threat
  to ground water

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

• This study was funded in part by a grant from the
  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, pursuant to
  Section 319 of the Federal Clean Water Act.