Occurrence of anticancer drugs and widely used pharmaceuticals in sewage sludge, compost, and river sediment

Pharmaceuticals enter the environment mainly via municipal wastewater treatment plants, where some compounds bind to sewage sludge during treatment processes. The contaminated sludge often undergoes fermentation and composting and is later used as a soil amendment. This study aims to investigate the fate of five pharmaceuticals letrozole, tamoxifen, carbamazepine, diclofenac, and naproxen, in environmental solid matrices, including sewage sludge, compost, and sediment. An analytical method based on microwave-assisted extraction, SPE, and UPLC-MS/MS was developed and validated. The most abundant compounds in sewage sludge were carbamazepine (29-92 ng/g dw) and diclofenac (46-213 ng/g dw). Tamoxifen occurred at lower concentrations (5-19 ng/g dw), while letrozole and naproxen were generally detected below LOQ levels. Carbamazepine and diclofenac were the only compounds detected in compost samples. In the receiving river sediment, studied compounds were found at low concentrations (< 11 ng/g dw), except letrozole and tamoxifen, which were not detected. The results suggest that carbamazepine and diclofenac bind to sewage sludge and are not degraded during treatment processes, potentially ending up in compost and soils. This emphasizes the need for further research on their environmental impacts at low concentrations in soil.