Distribution, removal efficiency, and health risk assessment of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in drinking water treatment processes of a Southwest Industrial City

The presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in drinking water has garnered increasing attention due to their negative effects on human beings. However, it's still unclear if they can transport from source water to tap water. This study investigated the occurrence and fate of 44 PPCPs in seven full-scale drinking water treatment plants in a typical industrial city of Southwest China. The total concentrations of PPCPs were 72.4–477 ng/L in source water, with caffeine (up to 177 ng/L) and its metabolite of 1,7-dimethylxanthine (49.1 ng/L) dominating. Water treatment processes removed about 14% of PPCPs, while coagulation–sedimentation contributed 22% of the removal. The removal efficiencies were significantly varied when using different source waters, i.e., river water and reservoir water sources. Hydrophilic compounds with Log KOW < 2 exhibited desorption during filtration, resulting in a 53% rebound in penicillin antibiotic concentrations. All PPCPs showed health risk quotients (RQH) below the safety threshold (0.01), with penicillin-G posing the highest risk to infants (RQH = 4.52 × 10−3). The study highlighted conventional treatment limitations for the removal of PPCPs, which showed the importance of selecting water treatment processes optimized based on source water characteristics.