Treatment of Micropollutants in Water and Wastewater

Municipal wastewater is the main source of micropollutants which are present in the household products (detergents, cosmetics and paints) and natural excretion of humans (drugs and metabolites, synthetic hormones) (Bruchet et al., 2002; Bicchi et al., 2009). After their use, pharmaceuticals are excreted intact and/or as metabolites with feces and urine; thus are introduced directly into wastewater (Lo¨ffler et al., 2005). New sanitation concepts where wastewater streams are separated and treated according to their characteristics is thus an important source control strategy to avoid input of pharmaceuticals to the wastewaters and in turn to the environment.