Wastewater treatment process may keep fish off antidepressants

While some people may wonder about the possible side-effects of antidepressants on the people who are taking them, here’s another thing to consider ... what happens when the residue from those drugs passes through the user’s urine and into the sewage system? As it turns out, it can enter local waterways and affect the fish. Now, researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm have developed technology to keep that from happening.

In a study recently conducted at Sweden’s Umeå University, perch were exposed to the anxiety-moderating drug Oxazepam, in concentrations similar to those found downstream from sewage treatment plants. It was observed that the normally-shy fish became bolder, venturing away from their protective schools to hunt for food – a behavior that makes them more likely to be eaten by predators.

It was additionally noted that they ate more quickly. This could allow them to eat a greater amount overall, potentially throwing ecosystems out of balance, and creating algae blooms via increased amounts of feces.

Umeå environmental chemist Jerker Fick was quoted as saying, “The solution to the problem is not to stop medicating ill people, but to try to develop sewage treatment plants that can capture environmentally hazardous drugs.” Apparently, that’s what KTH has done.

The technology utilizes a process known as membrane distillation, in which liquid water passes through a microporous membrane in the form of water vapor – once on the other side of that membrane, the vapor moves across an air gap and then condenses on a collecting plate, thus returning to its liquid state. Antidepressants in the unfiltered liquid are unable to pass through the membrane, so they end up collecting on its liquid, “dirty” side.

The water temperature reportedly doesn’t need to be particularly high in order for the process to work.A large-scale membrane distillation system has been set up at KTH’s Hammarby Sjöstadsverket water treatment test facility. When wastewater containing 282 nanograms of Oxazepam per liter was treated, the concentration dropped to under two nanograms per liter – in an ordinary treatment plant, virtually none of the Oxazepam would have been removed.

The results have been similar with most other medications tested. “Of all the 20th century-tested drugs, it is only the remains of the antidepressant Sertraline that we failed to clear 100 percent,”

Comments

Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun tracks targets and avoids friendly fire

Anyone who plays video games will know that few things protect an area like a well-placed sentry gun. In the real world, though, even a person's bedroom or office could use a little protection sometimes, which is why one designer has built the Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun. Using a custom program and some servos, the sentry can automatically locate targets and unleash a stream of foam darts at over seven times the usual speed, while keeping its owner out of the crosshairs. Britt Liv Ulrike Michelsen, a chemical and biological engineering student from Germany, designed and constructed the sentry using mostly basic electronics and some plywood. This isn't the first time she's modified a Nerf gun, but building this robotic turret is arguably her most ambitious project to date. Luckily, the Nerf Vulcan already operates using an electric motor, so controlling the actual firing mechanism through a computer was just a matter of connecting it directly to an Arduino Uno and a laptop. ...

Students crash rockets to develop new asteroid sample collection technique

In what at first glance seems like a terrible sense of direction, in March students from the University of Washington fired rockets from kites and balloons at an altitude of 3,000 ft (914 m) straight into the ground at Black Rock, Nevada: a dry lake bed in the desert 100 mi (160 km) north of Reno. This may seem like the ultimate in larking about, but it's actually a serious effort to develop new ways of collecting samples from asteroids. The test was part of the “Sample Return Systems for Extreme Environments” project. The idea is to find cheaper, more efficient ways of collecting samples from asteroids and hazardous areas on Earth, such as volcanoes and nuclear disaster zones, by using penetrators instead of soft landers or ground crews to hammer out sample cores. According to the team, this would result in lower cost than soft landing techniques by reducing the velocity and vehicle mass needed to gather the sample, minimizing damage on impact, as well as being mechanically s...

Stephen Hawking chooses a new voice

Celebrated Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has selected and is using NeoSpeech's Text-to-Speech engine, VoiceText, as his new voice. VoiceText is integrated into Dr. Hawking's communicator, E Z Keys, enabling him to clearly communicate with the outside world. 'As a scientist and lecturer, it is imperative that Professor Hawking presents his findings in a clear and concise manner,' said Tom Pelly, Dr. Hawking's technical assistant. 'Professor Hawking was very impressed by NeoSpeech 's speech synthesiser, as it was by far the most natural-sounding and realistic of all of the off-the-shelf software voices that he has heard. This technology can help ensure that his vocals match his research in terms of credibility and believability.' Dr. Hawking, a renowned scientist, professor and author, suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative motor neuron illness. While the disease has not affected Dr. Hawking's intellectual capacity, ...

ANBARASUASOKAN

Search This Blog