Searching Traces of Medicine

An increasing amount of chemicals get to our environment - partly as a result of medicine consumption and the use of cosmetic materials. The potentially harmful effects of these are often only sensed after years or even decades. József Dobor, doctoral student of the Department of Analytic Chemistry of Eötvös Loránd University examines organic micro contaminants from the silt and drift of the Danube. His research contributes to the protection of the drinking water base of Budapest.

Could you tell us more about your research topic?

My theme is the study of micro contaminants in different environmental samples. More specifically, I examine chemical compounds that are demonstrated to be used in large quantities. We have focused on four components: slowly degrading or organic molecules (painkillers and antiphlogistic drugs). Our studies provide information on the pollution of living waters, as well as on the efficiency of the treatment of refuse water. Meanwhile, we are trying to invent and apply methods and aim to elaborate an analytic method that can be used routinely for the detection of the mentioned components. We aim to contribute to securing the protection of drinking water supplies with our research.

What are the international precedents of this kind of study?

In my information, studies like this have been run in several countries for a long time now, and micro contaminants have been studied in the US for 20-30 years. The potentially substantial environmental effects of large-scale medicine consumption have been an issue for some time now. People use large amounts of medicine both in the US and in Europe, including traditional pharmaceutical products as well as food supplements and ointments. Average waste water technologies do not yet cope with these kinds of compounds in the way we would expect (as they channel them into living waters). It is important to know that organic contaminants can transform into even more harmful compounds in the environment (metabolisation). Even by conservative estimates, tens of thousands of organic molecules are produced each year, and of course the so-called environmental impact study is not prepared for all of them. At the beginning of the 2000s, the international collaborative POSEIDON-project addressed this issue. Their narrower area of research has German precedents: a German research team studied these molecules with a similar method, which we developed, also aiming to make it suitable for routine application.

What kinds of foreign experiences do you have?

We are having collaborative relations with China, two students have been here from the University of Wuhan. One of them spent half a year here and got to know our methods. A joint publication has also come out since then. In their country, not only organic contaminants cause a problem, but pollution of agricultural origin and by heavy metals is also significant.

The first step, and one of the most important phases of the research is sampling. What kinds of samples do you study, and how do they get to the laboratory?

We took environmental samples ourselves with my supervisor, and waste water mud samples were provided for our lab by the waste water cleaning plant of North Pest. In the sampling process, we took liquid and solid (drift and mud) samples from the Danube (and from the bank of the Danube) for half a year. Our sampling points were at the waterworks of Csepel, under and above the planned entering point of the Central Waste Water Cleaning Plant of Budapest, now operating as a pilot plant, and by the ferry of Tököl. We recorded the weather parameters, the water-level and the complicating factors.

How does the sampling and processing take place?

The samples are taken partly by us from the waste water cleaning plants, the water-works and the bank of the Danube. The samples are first sifted and dried. In my information, there is no elaborate analytical method for the segregation of the organic micro contaminants that I examine as yet (in Europe), so my tasks included the elaboration of this, too. During the processing of solid samples, the aim is to transform the organic molecules to be examined from solid stage to liquid stage. Following this lengthy procedure, the organic contaminant from the sample taken from the Danube is transferred to the test tube. Now "all" we have to do is to identify the components in this.

What can an average medicine user do to prevent further pollution of the living waters?

It is very important to take the unused medication back to the pharmacy, these should not be discarded or burned. It would also be important to urge rational purchasing: if someone only needs a few pills, one should not buy a whole box. Big cities like Budapest take the necessary amount of water from the living waters, so we have to prevent the appearance of contaminant components in living waters, surface waters and thus in tap water, by all means.