| Abstract |
I chose to do my project on this topic as water pollution is a significant issue. After humans use medication, residues are excreted and enter the wastewater system. Many studies have been conducted which shows that pharmaceutical residues in our water systems can have a substantial impact on the environment and animals such as fish. My project centres on discovering ways to remove medicines from different solutions I created. I used paracetamol and ibuprofen; I crushed 4 tablets of each medication using a pestle and mortar and dissolved the powder in 1L of deionised water. I measured out 200 mL of a medicine solution into a beaker, recording its parts per million (ppm) using a handheld dissolved solids meter. I then added either 2g of charcoal or 1.5g of polystyrene to the solution and waited for 1 hour. This step was followed by the filtering of the solution using filtering paper. I then re-recorded the solutions parts per million (ppm), calculating the difference between the original reading, and the reading after filtration, to determine whether any of the medication's particles were removed. I repeated this entire process 3 times. My results showed that some particles were removed. For example, activated charcoal removed an average of 19 ppm from the solutions. And for polystyrene, there was an average of 23 ppm removed from the solutions. This has showed a small yet positive change, which has encouraged me to further develop my project.
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