Antibiotics and hormone residues in wastewater: Occurrence, risks, and its biological, physical and chemical treatments

This chapter reports on the occurrence, risks, and treatment methods of pollutants (antibiotics and hormones) in wastewater. The misuse of these substances has played a crucial role in environmental contamination and consequently an increase in the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) has been observed as well as negative impacts on human and animal health due to the bioaccumulation process. In this context, treatment plants for affluents and effluents, rivers, soil, air, vegetables, among others, have been receiving a significant amount of load containing antibiotics and hormones. However, the current remediation methods of treatment were not designed to remove these micropollutants which, therefore, remain present in the water resources matrices. Thus, treated wastewater containing antibiotics and hormones, if used for drinking water supply, poses serious risks to human and animal health. The literature reports that combined technology (biological and non-biological) are effective in remediation, that is, alternative technologies emerge as possible solutions to this global problem.