Collaborative Research: Environmental Fate and Impacts of Quaternary Ammonium Compounds Following Increased Use During the SARS-CoV 2 Pandemic

合作研究：SARS-CoV 2 大流行期间季铵化合物使用量增加对环境的归宿和影响

• 批准号: 2051336
• 负责人: Patrick McNamara
• 金额: $ 18.94万
• 依托单位: Marquette University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-15 至 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2051336&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Environmental; Fate; Impacts

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the global pandemic of COVID-19. Disinfection use to kill SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces and for handwashing has increased dramatically in response to the pandemic. A large number of disinfectants have been approved for usage as SARS-CoV-2 disinfectants, many of which contain quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs). QACs will inevitably be sent to wastewater treatment plants and some will end up in receiving waters. The effect of these disinfection chemicals on the operation of wastewater treatment plants and receiving waters is largely unknown. These compounds may also contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance microorganisms, an issue of global health importance. The goal of this project is to address these major gaps in our knowledge on QACs to provide information to help limit any environmental impact. The goal will be achieved by assessing QACs in wastewater treatment plants and determine what happens to them in different plant processes and receiving waters. Successful completion of the proposed research will provide the information needed to assess the risk of QACs to protect public health while minimizing environmental persistence and impacts. The project will lead to collaborations with wastewater treatment systems operators to improve operations and the development of educational videos for middle school environmental science students to enhance scientific literacy of the Nation.Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are active ingredients in over 200 disinfectants currently recommended for use to kill the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus. Increased use of these disinfectants for hand washing and surface cleaning continues, and the biological impacts of increasing chemical loadings to wastewater treatment plants and surface waters is largely unknown. The goal of this work is to assess the potential impacts of increased QAC loadings to wastewater treatment plants and subsequently aquatic and soil environments. This goal will be achieved through specific research objectives to: 1) Assess QAC levels in wastewater treatment facilities, surface waters, and sediments; 2) Quantify degradation rate constants for QACs and predict persistence in surface waters; and 3) Understand how increased QAC loadings to anaerobic digesters and water environments affects antibiotic resistance. Twelve wastewater treatment plants employing various biological and chemical treatment processes will be sampled seasonally for three years to assess influent, liquid effluent, and biosolids effluent QAC loadings. Sediment samples near outfalls will also be sampled. A mass balance on QACs across individual unit operations will be conducted at two treatment plants. Lab-scale biodegradation and photolysis experiments will be conducted to generate rate removal constants to predict persistence in environmental waters. Lab-scale anaerobic digester experiments will be conducted to determine the impact of increasing concentrations of specific QAC classes on antibiotic resistance. Samples from full-scale plants will also be analyzed for changes in antibiotic resistance. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic brings large uncertainty regarding the amount of QACs that will be used and their specific environmental impacts. By combining lab-scale and full-scale studies we will generate data on classes of QACs and individual QACs that can be used for risk assessments and assessing their impacts on antibiotic resistance. This research is timely and transformative given the expectation of increased loadings of QACs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and long-term changes in consumer and business purchasing of products containing QACs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

新型的冠状病毒SARS-COV-2负责Covid-19的全球大流行。消毒用来杀死表面上的SARS-COV-2，用于响应大流行时，用来洗手会大大增加。已经批准了大量的消毒剂作为SARS-COV-2消毒剂，其中许多含有第四纪铵化合物（QAC）。 QACS将不可避免地被送往废水处理厂，有些将最终被接收水域。这些消毒化学物质对废水处理厂和接收水的运行的影响在很大程度上尚不清楚。这些化合物也可能有助于抗生素耐药性微生物的传播，这是全球健康重要性的问题。该项目的目的是解决我们对QAC的知识中的这些主要差距，以提供信息，以帮助限制任何环境影响。该目标将通过评估废水处理厂中的QAC来实现，并确定它们在不同植物过程和接收水域中发生的情况。成功完成拟议的研究将提供评估QAC风险以保护公共卫生的风险所需的信息，同时最大程度地减少环境持久性和影响。该项目将导致与废水处理系统运营商合作，以改善运营和开发中学环境科学专业学生的教育视频，以增强国家的科学素养。标准铵化合物（QACS）是目前建议用来杀死SARS-COV-2（COVID-119）的200多种消毒剂中的活性成分。这些消毒剂用于手洗和表面清洁的使用增加，并且在废水处理厂和地表水上增加化学载荷的生物学影响是未知的。这项工作的目的是评估QAC载荷增加对废水处理厂的潜在影响，以及随后的水生和土壤环境。该目标将通过特定的研究目标实现：1）评估废水处理设施，地表水和沉积物中的QAC水平； 2）量化QAC的降解率常数并预测地表水中的持久性； 3）了解对厌氧消化剂和水环境的QAC负载增加如何影响抗生素耐药性。使用各种生物学和化学处理过程的十二个废水处理厂将进行三年的季节性采样，以评估进水，液体废水和生物固体废水QAC载荷。排水界附近的沉积物样品也将进行采样。跨两个治疗厂将在各个单位操作中对QAC进行质量平衡。将进行实验室规模的生物降解和光解实验，以产生速率去除常数，以预测环境水域的持久性。将进行实验室规模的厌氧消化酯实验，以确定特定QAC类对抗生素耐药性增加的影响。还将分析来自全尺度植物的样品，以了解抗生素耐药性的变化。 SARS-COV-2大流行对将使用的QAC数量及其特定的环境影响带来了巨大的不确定性。通过结合实验室规模和全尺度研究，我们将生成有关QAC和单个QAC类别的数据，这些数据可用于风险评估并评估其对抗生素耐药性的影响。鉴于期望QAC的负载增加，因此由于COVID-19的大流行以及对包含QAC的产品的消费者和业务购买的长期变化，这项研究是及时和变革性的。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的智力和更广泛影响的评估来通过评估来获得支持的。