In spite of the quantities and species of chemicals dramatically increased with rapid economic growth in China in the last decade, the focus of environmental research was mainly on limited number of priority pollutants. Therefore, to elucidate environmental pollution by organic micro-pollutants, this work was conducted as the first systematic survey on the occurrence of 1300 substances in 20 surface water samples of Tianjin, North China, selected as a representative area of China. The results showed the presence of 227 chemicals. The most relevant compounds in terms of frequency of detection and median concentration were bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (100%; 0.26μgL(-1)), siduron (100%; 0.20μgL(-1)), lidocaine (100%; 96ngL(-1)), antipyrine (100%; 76ngL(-1)), caffeine (95%; 0.28μgL(-1)), cotinine (95%; 0.20μgL(-1)), phenanthrene (95%; 0.17μgL(-1)), metformin (90%; 0.61μgL(-1)), diethyl phthalate (90%; 0.19μgL(-1)), quinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid (90%; 0.14μgL(-1)), 2-(methylthio)-benzothiazole (85%; 0.11μgL(-1)) and anthraquinone (85%; 54ngL(-1)). Cluster analysis discriminated three highly polluted sites from others based on data similarity. Principle component analysis identified four factors, corresponding to industrial wastewater, domestic discharge, tire production and atmospheric deposition, accounting for 78% of the total variance in the water monitoring data set. This work provides a wide reconnaissance on broad spectrum of organic micro-contaminants in surface waters in China, which indicates that the aquatic environment in China has been polluted by a large number of chemicals.
Keywords: Organic micro-pollutants; PAHs; PPCPs; Principle component analysis.
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