Assessing the efficiency of ozone-based advanced drinking water treatment processes in removing antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant genes: Pilot-scale research

With the widespread use of antibiotics, the emergence of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) poses a potential threat to public health. Drinking water plants are both the source and sink of these pollutants. In this study, we investigated and analyzed the distribution of four major types of antibiotics and ARGs in a drinking water plant with advanced treatment processes (ozone and activated carbon units) located in the central region of China. Among these treatment processes, the ozone process had significant removal effects on antibiotics and resistance genes, ranging from 15.10–91.17 % and 0.07–1.27 log, (except for ermA and qnrD) respectively. A correlation analysis of the concentrations of antibiotics and ARGs revealed a significant correlation (0.95