Removal of Cytostatic Drugs from Water and Wastewater: Progress in the Development of Advanced Treatment Methods

Cytostatic drugs and other pharmaceuticals are newly recognized classes of environmental pollutants that receive considerable attention because of their categorization as carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic compounds. Although the cytostatics belong to currently unregulated trace-level contaminants, this situation can change in the near future. Due to poor biodegradability and low removal efficiency by conventional wastewater treatments, the alternative methods for a successful elimination of these drugs have been developed and investigated. This chapter provides a review of recent scientific research on the elimination of cytostatic drugs from water and wastewater by advanced physicochemical, chemical and biological methods, and advanced oxidation processes. The advanced treatments including membrane filtration, adsorption, ozonation, biomembrane filtration and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), such as the Fenton reaction, photodegradation under solar and UV irradiation, and electrochemical oxidation, constitute a promising technology for the treatment of water and wastewater containing cytostatic drugs. In the presented review, data published on the degradation of cytostatic drugs by the aforementioned alternative methods have been evaluated for the period 2007–2017. Additional aspects of the problem such as the operating conditions, influence of the aqueous matrix quality on the removal efficacy, decomposition mechanism of cytostatic drugs based on the identified intermediates, and the advantages and disadvantages of the applied processes are also discussed.