Investigation of the environmental transport of human pharmaceuticals to surface water: a case study of persistence of pharmaceuticals in effluent of sewage treatment plants and hospitals in Malaysia

Abstract

The present work reports the occurrence and monitoring of 11 pharmaceuticals (i.e., caffeine, prazosin, enalapril, carbamazepine, nifedipine, gliclazide, levonorgestrel, simvastatin, hydrochlorothiazide, diclofenac-Na and mefenamic acid) in surface water and in the influent and effluent of sewage treatment plants (STPs) and hospitals (HSPs). A total of 105 water samples were analyzed using solid-phase extraction combined with liquid chromatography-time-of-flight/ mass spectrometry (SPE-LC-TOF/MS). The mean concentrations of the detected pharmaceuticals in STP influent and effluent ranged from limit of quantification (LOQ) to 3909 ng L-1 and 12 to 577 ng L-1, respectively. The mean concentrations of the detected pharmaceuticals in the hospital influent and effluent ranged from 28 to 1644 ng L-1 and 20 to 1540 ng L-1, respectively. The highest concentration detected in the sampling points was 9099 ng L-1 for caffeine in influent STP. The presence of prazosin has never been reported before in literature. In this study, prazosin was detected in all studied samples, and the highest concentration was 525 ng L-1 in influent STP. Chemometric analysis was used to assess the presence of pharmaceuticals in samples.