in

Grey water footprint of pharmaceuticals and personal care products discharged via urban wastewater


Abstract

Urban wastewater is a significant source of micro- and macropollutants in aquatic ecosystems, posing a high potential risk to drinking water sources. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are widely recognized as contaminants of emerging concern, although their relative burden compared to traditional pollutants remains insufficiently quantified. This study presents a comprehensive assessment of 92 micropollutants together with conventional pollution represented by nutrients and organic pollutants across 19 municipalities in the catchment of the largest Czech drinking water reservoir. More than one hundred 24-hour composite measurements were analysed. The Grey Water Footprint methodology integrates ecotoxicological thresholds, enabling a consistent comparison across PPCPs, nutrients, and organic pollution. Results reveal that the most critical micropollutants released from centralized wastewater treatment plants are Ibuprofen or Diclofenac, depending on treatment technology and plant size. However, nitrogen remains the dominant stressor approximately one kilometer downstream of urban discharges. These findings highlight that despite the increasing attention to micropollutants, conventional pollutants still account for the largest share of pollution in recipients. The methodological framework applied in this study allows stakeholders to compare the risks of different types of pollutants in a specific region. It offers a transferable tool for prioritizing contaminants and treatments, and guiding local wastewater management strategies under the EU Water Framework Directive, risk assessments under the revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, and beyond.

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Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available in Zenodo at [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18622885], under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0).

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Funding

The study was supported by (i) the project of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic VI20172020097 ‚Protection of critical infrastructure – the drinking water source of Želivka – against the effects of PPCPs and pesticides in conditions of long-term drought‘; (ii) the 3rd Call of ERA-NET Cofund AquaticPollutants, Thematic Annual Programming Action ‘Measuring of Inputs and Taking Actions to Reduce CECs, Pathogens and Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria in the Aquatic Ecosystems (inland and marine)’; (iii) the Internal Grant No. 3600.24/2025 ‘Water Footprint’ provided by the T. G. Masaryk Water Research Institute, public research institution, Prague; and (iv) the Grant PID2022-136816OB-I00 from the Minister of Science and Innovation of Spain.

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Conceptualization L.S.; Methodology P.R., D.F., L.S., L.A.; Validation L.A., A.B., Y.Ch., L.M., D.V.; Formal analysis: L.S., L.A., Investigation: D.F., P.R., A.B., J.K., M.V.; Data curation D.F., P.R., L.S., Y.Ch., L.M.; Writing original draft L.S.; Review and editing: all authors; Supervision: L.A., A.B.; Funding acquisition P.R., J.K., L.S., A.B.

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Lada Stejskalová.

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Stejskalová, L., Ansorge, L., Rosendorf, P. et al. Grey water footprint of pharmaceuticals and personal care products discharged via urban wastewater.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-48905-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-48905-5

Keywords

  • Grey water footprint
  • Micropollutants
  • Pollutant priorization
  • PPCP
  • Urban wastewater
  • Water pollution


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