A priori assessment of ecotoxicological risks linked to building a hospital Yves Perrodin a,⇑ , Bazin Christine c , Bony Sylvie a,b , Devaux Alain a,b , Bertrand-Krajewski Jean-Luc d , Cren-Olivé Cécile e , Roch Audrey f , Brelot Elodie g a Université de Lyon, ENTPE, CNRS, UMR 5023 LEHNA, 2 Rue Maurice Audin, 69518 Vaulx-en-Velin, France b INRA, USC IGH, UMR 5023 LEHNA, 2 rue Maurice Audin, 69518 Vaulx-en-Velin, France c INSAVALOR-POLDEN, 20 Avenue Albert Einstein, 69621 Villeurbanne, France d Université de Lyon, INSA de Lyon, Laboratoire LGCIE, 20 Avenue Albert Einstein, 69621 Villeurbanne, France e Université de Lyon, CNRS, UMR 5280 ISA, Service Central d’Analyse, 5 rue de la Doua, 69100 Villeurbanne, France f Syndicat Intercommunal de Bellecombe, 160 Grande Rue, 74930 Reignier, France g GRAIE, BP 2132, 69621, Villeurbanne, France highlights " Hospital effluents are generally discharged in sewers without treatment. " A specific methodology have been developed to assess the ecotoxicological risks. " A moderate risk of the studied effluent is obtained for the river concerned. " This release contributes significantly to the global local ecotoxicological risk. article info Article history: Received 8 May 2012 Received in revised form 25 August 2012 Accepted 27 August 2012 Available online 4 October 2012 Keywords: Hospitals wastewater Ecological risk assessment Ecotoxicological risk assessment Chemical pollutants Pharmaceuticals WWTP abstract Hospital wastewaters contain a large number of chemical pollutants such as disinfectants, detergents, and drug residues. A part of these pollutants is not eliminated by traditional urban waste water treatment plants, leading to a major risk for the aquatic ecosystems receiving these effluents. After having formu- lated a specific methodology in order to assessment ecotoxicological risk for such a situation, we applied it to the project to build a new hospital shared by several towns in the French Alps. This methodology is based on the ecotoxicological characterisation of the hospital wastewater using a battery of three chronic bioassays (Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata, Heterocypris incongruens and Brachionus calyciflorus) and of genotoxicity tests (Ames fluctuation assay on Salmonella typhimurium, and a Fpg-modified comet assay on the trout liver cell line RTL-W1). The formulated methodology highlights a moderate risk of the hospital wastewater for the organisms of the water column of the river concerned. Nevertheless, this discharge contributes significantly to the global ecotoxicological risk when taking into account all the releases of the watershed into the river. This leads to recommending the implementation of a specific treatment sys- tem in the urban WWTP, or upstream to it, in view to protecting the aquatic organisms. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Hospitals use a large variety of chemical substances such as pharmaceuticals, radionuclides, disinfectants and detergents, for health care, diagnostics, disinfection and research (Kümmerer et al., 1998; Kümmerer and Helmers, 2000). After application, some of these substances and non-metabolised drugs excreted by patients are found in hospital wastewaters (Kümmerer, 2001; Langford and Thomas, 2009), which generally reach the municipal sewer network without preliminary treatment (Emmanuel et al., 2004). Pollutants from hospitals have been thus found in WWTP wastewaters (Brown et al., 2006; Langford and Thomas, 2009), and in surface water (Sprehe et al., 2001). Therefore, hospitals con- stitute the source of a large array of toxic substances released in aquatic ecosystems, sometimes in high concentrations. These re- leases could have negative effects on the biological equilibrium of natural media (Jolibois et al., 2002; Escher et al., 2011). So, though hospital activities only contribute 20–30% of discharges from care activities, they represent an important part of the prob- lem, and it is necessary to improve their management. The aim of this paper is to present: (i) a detailed procedure for- mulated for the ecological risk assessment of hospital wastewater, discharged into an urban sewer network, then in a WWTP, and 0045-6535/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2012.08.049 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 4 72 04 70 58; fax: +33 4 72 04 77 43. E-mail address: Yves.Perrodin@entpe.fr (Y. Perrodin). Chemosphere 90 (2013) 1037–1046 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Chemosphere journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere