Comprehensive investigation of a wide range of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in urban and hospital wastewaters in Greece

Abstract

Detection and quantification of Pharmaceutical and Personal care products (PPCPs) in wastewaters and aqueous samples is crucial in terms of environmental monitoring and risk assessment for these emerging contaminants in the environment. The majority of the studies on PPCPs in wastewaters involve analysis only of representative compounds for each class, while few studies reported for the analysis of several compounds from multiple classes of PPCPs in samples. In this light, the aim of this work was to develop a multiresidue analytical protocol based on solid phase extraction (SPE) coupled to liquid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometer-(LC-MS/MS) for simultaneous determination of 138 substances including 37 different classes of PPCPs that can be used for monitoring in wastewater. Hence, an extensive monitoring survey of PPCPs in four wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in three cities of North (Thessaloniki) and Central (Larisa, Volos) Greece region has been conducted. In addition, the occurrence of the target compounds in raw waters of effluents from two medium-size hospitals located in the Larisa Region was investigated. Analgesics-anti-inflammatories (paracetamol, diclofenac, ibuprofen, salicylic acid), diuretic (furosemide), antibiotics (amoxicillin, ampicillin, clarithromycin, azithromycin), anti-hypertensives (valsartan, irbesartan, telmisartan), psychiatric drugs (carbamazepine, venlafaxine, citalopram), stimulant (caffeine) and beta blockers (atenolol, metoprolol, pindolol) were among the most frequently detected compounds. The removal rates varied between the different therapeutic groups, as well within each therapeutic group, important variations in removal were observed, going from not eliminated to 100%. Mass loading distribution in the different WWTPs was also evaluated. Finally, the risk quotient approach (RQ) for single substances and the cumulative RQ for the classes of the target PPCPs was used in order to identify the potential ecotoxicological risk posed in the tree trophic levels of aquatic organisms.

Keywords: Environmental risk assessment; Hospital wastewaters; Mass loading; Occurrence; PPCPs.