Ractopamine and other related �-agonists are approved food additives used to improve animal marketability. Many of these chemicals, especially ractopamine used to promote lean cuts of pork, and chenbuterol which is used in both pork and cattle feed to improve meat quality, have now been banned by the European Union and China. Although research has yet to fully determine the negative health effects of these additives in humans, one consequence of this ban is that these countries no longer accept US imported pork due to high residual levels of these chemicals. These �-agonists have also been found in local water environments around animal farms. To ensure that contaminated wastewater is safe for both human consumption and the environment, effective treatment methods are needed to eliminate these chemicals from discharge water. The purpose of the study was to quantitatively investigate whether a water treatments such as advanced oxidation processes, that incorporate powerful oxidative radicals, could be effective in removing these chemicals from wastewaters. Here we have determined how fast and how efficient these radical reactions were under anticipated real-world treatment conditions. Ultimately these data will provide the necessary information to contribute to finding an efficient and economical way of removing these contaminants out of wastewater, thus minimizing risks to human health and the environment.

Removing ractopamine and related �-agonists from wastewaters by radical chemistry

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.