ABSTRACT
Over the past 30 years, the presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) has been documented in wastewater supplies and the environment [74,85,135,171,190]. Unlike many traditional contaminants for which the toxicological activity is separate from the intended use, pharmaceuticals have been specially designed to elicit a biochemical response in organisms. For this reason, pharmaceuticals represent a unique threat to
ecological and public health, even at trace concentrations. Given this threat, increased understanding of the removal of PPCPs in wastewater treatment processes is required to ensure ecological well-being and sustained protection of public water supplies.
