AWWA WQTC60800

A quantitative, selective and sensitive method on liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) coupled to analysis by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is described in this paper for analysis of a selected group of chemical compounds used as pharmaceuticals and personal care prodcuts (PPCPs). They are considered as persistent-emergent pollutants in natural and residual waters. The studied PPCPs - ibuprofen, diclofenac, bezafibrate, diazepan, carbamazepin, galaxolide, tonalide, celestolide, traseolide and cashmeran - represent three categories of PPCPs: acids and neutral pharmaceuticals and polycyclic synthetic musk, all of them with wide use. The effectiveness of the proposed method was higher than 90% in three different matrices; quantification limits were at order of ng/L range and precision was lower than 20% in the working range. The estimated uncertainty was about 23% for all compounds. To assess the performance of the method, natural and wastewaters were analyzed. The results showed that galaxolide, tonalide, ibuprofen, diclofenac and bezafibrate are the most frequently identified PPCPs in these waters. Currently, concentrations found in the wastewater are ten times higher than those found in natural waters. Ibuprofen was found between 0.1 and 0.2 ppb levels in the natural waters and higher to 1 ppb in wastewater ones; diclofenac usually presents a lower concentration than ibuprofen. Galaxolide was the main musk compound found at 0.3 and 13.5 µg/L in natural and residual waters, respectively. No PPCPs or very low concentrations were found in the tap water samples analyzed.