PAHs in wastewater: removal efficiency in a conventional wastewater treatment plant and comparison with model predictions

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) result very hazardous compounds and due to their lipophilicitiy, they can easily cross biological membranes and accumulate inside organisms, causing damages to the genetic material. The scientific interest to this class of chemicals is related to their demonstrated or supposed genotoxicity (first suspects on cancer causing characteristics of B[α]Py and dB[α,h]An date back to the thirties). This study try to pick out PAHs presence in wastewater and to estimate their removal efficiency in a conventional wastewater treatment plant (Varese Olona). The PAHs presence in municipal wastewater sewage system and in the WWTP effluent has been determined by specific analytical campaign and afterwards a comparison between observed removal efficiency and FATE model (US-EPA) predictions has been carried out.