Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) have been recognized as an important environmental issue in recent years. To date, many studies have monitored their presence in water matrix, where trace concentrations ranging from nano to microgram per liter have been detected. However, PPCPs could be continually discharged into streams, rivers or marines via untreated sewage and treated effluent due to the low and inefficient removal efficiency of PPCPs in conventional sewage treatment plants (STPs). As an important group of organic pollutants with intensive studies in recent years, the determination of the environmental risk to human body burden and the elimination mechanism is an essential topic. Our work aims to evaluate the occurrence and fate of PPCPs in rivers and two municipal STPs in Guizhou and Hong Kong.

 

Ms. Yang Yi is a PhD student in the Department of Science and Environment Studies of The Education University of Hong Kong. She received her MSc in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Her research focuses on the removal mechanisms of PPCPs in biological wastewater treatment systems with varying designs.