Occurrence of Parabens in Aquatic Environments and Sediments and Efficiency of Wastewater Treatment Plants in Parabens Removal Publisher Pubmed



Rezvani Ghalhari M ; Shokri B ; Dehghani M H ; Nabizadeh R ; Khani M ; Yaghmaeian K
Source: Scientific Reports Published:2026

Abstract

Parabens are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and their entry into the human body via water sources has adverse effects on human health. In the present study, the occurrence of methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben in three domestic, hospital, and industrial wastewater treatment plants, and in river water and sediments, was investigated. The samples were concentrated via solid-phase extraction and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Results showed that the recovery percentage for all examined parabens was within the acceptable range of 97.4% to 103.6%, and the highest paraben concentrations were observed in influents from the hospital wastewater treatment plant (methylparaben: 34.4 ± 3.6 µg/L; propylparaben: 30.9 ± 5.4 µg/L). The study indicated that processes used in wastewater treatment plants are unable to completely remove parabens; however, the anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic process has the highest efficiency for paraben removal. The anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic process’s efficiency for removing methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben was 72.24%, 78.37%, 79.57%, and 72.99%, respectively. Based on the results, the anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic process can be used as a primary treatment to reduce the concentration of emerging contaminants in wastewater. Given the health effects of parabens, future studies should investigate processes capable of completely removing emerging pollutants such as parabens from aquatic environments. © The Author(s) 2026.