Analysis of Pharmaceutical Residues on Aquatic Environment using LC/MS

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Research article

Journal of the Korean Society for Environmental Analysis 2008;11(2):99-108.

LC/MS를 이용한 물 환경내의 잔류의약품 분석

김주형¹, 박찬구², 김민영², 안승구²

¹서울시보건환경연구원
²서울시립대학교

Abstract

Recent concerns on environmental impacts of pharmaceutical residues lead to many occurrence surveys in several important media. However most of such investigations have been conducted in North America and Europe, and rarely carried out in Asian region. We collected influent and effluent samples from four sewage treatment plants as well as upstream and downstream surface water samples in Han River of Seoul, Korea, in three events, i.e., April, June, and August, 2005, and analyzed for eleven frequently used pharmaceuticals using LC-MS-ESI. Levels of pharmaceutical residues in wastewater influents were the highest for acetaminophen (average 27,089 ng/L), followed by caffeine (23,664 ng/L), cimetidine (8,045 ng/L), and sulfamethoxazole (523 ng/L). Pharmaceuticals of high annual production amount were detected in higher level in STP influents. Removal effectiveness of STPs varied by the type of pharmaceuticals: Removal rates for acetaminophen and caffeine were near 100%, while for cimetidine, less than a third was removed by the sewage treatment process, which is activated sludge method. In STP effluents, cimetidine showed the highest level of occurrence (5,380 ng/L), followed by caffeine (278 ng/L), sulfamethoxazole (193 ng/L), and carbamazepine (111 ng/L). The concentration of cimetidine was also the highest in surface water (average 281 ng/L). Caffeine 268.7 ng/L), acetaminophen (34.8 ng/L), and sulfamethoxazole (26.9 ng/L) were also occurring in high levels. The hazard quotients were calculated for the test pharmaceuticals based on their occurrences in surface water, and no pharmaceutical resulted in HQ greater than one, suggesting that their tendency for potential environmental impact may be low.

Key Words: Pharmaceutically active compounds, Municipal sewage, Persistent drug residues, Ground water, Solid-phase extraction