Contributions of Household Chemicals to Sewage and Their Relevance to Municipal Wastewater Systems and the Environment (...

Of the 26 household chemicals targeted in this study, 20 compounds were consistently detected in raw influents of full-scale wastewater treatment plantsChemicals that are primarily used in products applied outdoors were generally not present in raw influent samples. The majority of compounds present in personal care and cleaning products generally appeared in all influent samples with concentrations of 2-phenoxyethanol (a preservative with various uses) and menthol (a fragrance with various uses) consistently exhibiting the highest concentrations of all compounds.

The efficacy of advanced wastewater treatment processes to achieve removal and destruction of selected target compounds was studied through controlled lab- and pilot-scale studies (i.e., MBR, ozone, AOP). In general, biological treatment resulted in partial or complete removal (>80%) indicating that biological treatment is a good treatment option for HPV household chemicals.