Contaminated reclaimed wastewater has the potential to induce adverse effects on the health of wastewater workers and residents. However, few studies have focused on these health risks. In this study, we assessed the health risk of samples collected from different treatment processing units used in a typical water reclamation plant in Nanjing, China. Chemical analysis revealed that 40 semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) and 6 N-nitrosamines (NAs) persisted after wastewater treatment. A health risk assessment revealed that the SVOCs in effluents pose negligible non-carcinogenic risk to wastewater workers and local residents as both the hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) were all below 1.00. However, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalate esters (PAEs) and NAs may present a carcinogenic risk, since their risk index via dermal exposure exceeded the safety limit (1.00 × 10⁶), indicating that conventional treatment processes cannot effectively reduce the health risk in reclaimed wastewater. These results strongly suggest the need for the introduction of advanced treatment technologies capable of effectively removing SVOCs and NAs in water reclamation plants.

受污染的再生废水有可能对废水工人和居民的健康产生不利影响。但是，很少有研究关注这些健康风险。在这项研究中，我们评估了从南京典型的水回收厂中使用的不同处理处理单元收集的样品的健康风险。化学分析表明，废水处理后，仍存在40种半挥发性有机化合物（SVOC）和6种N-亚硝胺（NA）。健康风险评估显示，废水中的SVOC对废水工作人员和当地居民的非致癌风险可忽略不计，因为危险系数（HQ）和危害指数（HI）均低于1.00。但是，多环芳烃（PAH），邻苯二甲酸酯（PAE）和NA可能会致癌，⁶），表明常规处理工艺无法有效降低再生废水的健康风险。这些结果强烈表明需要引入能够有效去除水再生厂中的SVOC和NA的先进处理技术。