To provide the first nationwide reconnaissance of the occurrence of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants (OWCs) in water resources, the U.S. Geological Survey used five newly developed analytical methods to measure concentrations of 95 OWCs in water samples from a network of 139 streams across 30 states during 1999 and 2000. The selection of sampling sites was biased toward streams susceptible to contamination (i.e. downstream of intense urbanization and livestock production). OWCs were prevalent during this study, being found in 80% of the streams sampled. The compounds detected represent a wide range of residential, industrial, and agricultural origins and uses with 82 of the 95 OWCs being found during this study. The most frequently detected compounds were coprostanol (fecal steroid), cholesterol (plant and animal steroid), N,N-diethyltoluamide (insect repellant), caffeine (stimulant), triclosan (antimicrobial disinfectant), tri(2-chloroethyl)phosphate (fire retardant), and 4-nonylphenol (nonionic detergent metabolite). Measured concentrations for this study were generally low and rarely exceeded drinking-water guidelines, drinking-water health advisories, or aquatic-life criteria. Many compounds, however, do not have such guidelines established. The detection of multiple OWCs was common for this study, with a median of seven and as many as 38 OWCs being found in a given water sample. Little is known about the potential interactive effects (such as synergistic or antagonistic toxicity) that may occur from complex mixtures of OWCs in the environment. In addition, results of this study demonstrate the importance of obtaining data on metabolites to fully understand not only the fate and transport of OWCs in the hydrologic system but also their ultimate overall effect on human health and the environment.

/pdf/pharmaceuticals-hormones-and-other-organic-wastewater-1tge16xbvm.pdf

Pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants in U.S. streams, 1999-2000: a national reconnaissance.

During the last three decades, the impact of chemical pollution has focused almost exclusively on the conventional "priority" pollutants, especially those acutely toxic/carcinogenic pesticides and industrial intermediates displaying persistence in the environment. This spectrum of chemicals, however, is only one piece of the larger puzzle in "holistic" risk assessment. Another diverse group of bioactive chemicals receiving comparatively little attention as potential environmental pollutants includes the pharmaceuticals and active ingredients in personal care products (in this review collectively termed PPCPs), both human and veterinary, including not just prescription drugs and biologics, but also diagnostic agents, "nutraceuticals," fragrances, sun-screen agents, and numerous others. These compounds and their bioactive metabolites can be continually introduced to the aquatic environment as complex mixtures via a number of routes but primarily by both untreated and treated sewage. Aquatic pollution is particularly troublesome because aquatic organisms are captive to continual life-cycle, multigenerational exposure. The possibility for continual but undetectable or unnoticed effects on aquatic organisms is particularly worrisome because effects could accumulate so slowly that major change goes undetected until the cumulative level of these effects finally cascades to irreversible change--change that would otherwise be attributed to natural adaptation or ecologic succession. As opposed to the conventional, persistent priority pollutants, PPCPs need not be persistent if they are continually introduced to surface waters, even at low parts-per-trillion/parts-per-billion concentrations (ng-microg/L). Even though some PPCPs are extremely persistent and introduced to the environment in very high quantities and perhaps have already gained ubiquity worldwide, others could act as if they were persistent, simply because their continual infusion into the aquatic environment serves to sustain perpetual life-cycle exposures for aquatic organisms. This review attempts to synthesize the literature on environmental origin, distribution/occurrence, and effects and to catalyze a more focused discussion in the environmental science community.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment: agents of subtle change?

Antibiotics in the aquatic environment - A review - Part II

Occurrence of drugs in German sewage treatment plants and rivers

https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/33344/4/A%20review%20on%20the%20occurrence%20of%20micropollutants%20in%20the%20aquatic%20environment%20and%20their%20fate%20and%20removal%20during%20wastewater%20treatment.pdf

A review on the occurrence of micropollutants in the aquatic environment and their fate and removal during wastewater treatment

Occurrence of antibiotics in the aquatic environment.

Behavior and occurrence of estrogens in municipal sewage treatment plants--I. Investigations in Germany, Canada and Brazil.

Determination of antibiotics in different water compartments via liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

An analytical method has been developed which allows the determination of 22 different neutral and weakly basic drugs belonging to several different medicinal classes like antiphlogistics, betablockers, β2-sympathomimetics, lipid regulators, antiepileptic agents, psychiatric drugs and vasodilators in waste water as well as in river and drinking water. A method including solid phase extraction, derivatization by silylation and detection by GC/MS permits detection down to 5 ng/L. The recovery rates mostly exceeded 70%. However, the determination of phenazone, carbamazepine, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and pentoxiphylline is frequently disturbed by organic co-extractants in real samples of rivers and waste waters. Therefore, a time saving alternative method has been developed, combining solid phase extraction (as an enrichment step) together with detection by LC-electrospray/MS/MS allowing the measurement of 5 neutral drugs. Detection limits down to 10 ng/L have been achieved even for organically highly contaminated waters like sewage treatment plant effluents.

Methods for the determination of neutral drugs as well as betablockers and β2-sympathomimetics in aqueous matrices using GC/MS and LC/MS/MS

A method for trace analysis of steroids in water with lower limits of detection down to I ng/l was developed. Using this method natural and synthetic estrogen as well as the phytoestrogen β-sitosterol can be detected even in water samples which are extremely contaminated by organic matter. The occurrance of steroids in influents and effluents of sewage plants, river water and tap water was investigated. It was shown that the steroids are eliminated effectively but not completely in sewage plants (58 to 91 %). In effluents of different sewage plants, estradiol (up to 20 ng/l), mestranol (up to 21 ng/l), ethinyl estradiol (up to 62 ng/l) and β-sitosterol (up to 402 ng/l) were detected. In river water the synthetic estrogens mestranol and ethinyl estradiol were occasionally detected with concentrations below 5 ng/l. β-sitosterol was determined in river water in a concentration range up to 56 ng/l. The investigated natural and synthetic estrogens were not found in tap water. Only the phytoestrogen β-sitosterol was detectable in some samples with concentrations in the range from 20 to 60 ng/l.

Klaus Haberer

Papers

Occurrence of antibiotics in the aquatic environment.

Behavior and occurrence of estrogens in municipal sewage treatment plants--I. Investigations in Germany, Canada and Brazil.

Determination of antibiotics in different water compartments via liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

Methods for the determination of neutral drugs as well as betablockers and β2-sympathomimetics in aqueous matrices using GC/MS and LC/MS/MS

Nachweis von natürlichen und synthetischen Östrogenen in Kläranlagen und Fliessgewässern