Comment on 'Fate of Octyl- and Nonylphenol Ethoxylates and Some Carboxylated Derivatives in Three American Wastewater Treatment Plants'

摘要

Our review of the Loyo-Rosales, et al. paper ((1)) shows the following. (1) There appears to be a reversal in the reported influent and effluent alkylphenoxyethoxy carboxylates (APEC) data in their Table 2. (2) The authors' key conclusions are not supported by the authors' data. And (3) It appears that the authors are confusing wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) "removal" with WWTP "degradation" or "transformation". It appears that the APEC data in their Table 2 (last column) for influent and effluent have been reversed. It is difficult to believe that all three WWTPs are such a significant source of APECs. If the data are indeed reversed, then the authors need to check and revise Figures 2 and 3 and any resulting conclusions from this discrepancy. Based upon the data in their Table 2, we have calculated alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs) (nonylphenol ethoxylates [NPEOs] + octylphenol ethoxylates [OPEOs]) removal for these three WWTPs as follows: We have also included total suspended solids (TSS) removal data in the above table. These data are taken from the authors' Table S-2 (Supporting Information). As one can see from the above table, the APEOs removal varied from 95.4 to 99.7% for all three plants during summer and winter sampling events.