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Pharmaceutical and personal care products present in surface, drinking and wastewater in the department of Cordoba, Colombia
Contextualization: Advancement in the Sensitivity of Analytical Techniques developed in recent decades contribute to identify and quantify the presence of various pollutants in the aquatic environment, within this group of pollutants we have the emerging pollutants (EP) which are mainly organic compounds present as personal care and hygiene products, antibiotics, hormones, plasticizers, drugs and other products that are dumped into water sources altering the balance of these ecosystems.
Knowledge gap: Several studies show that emerging pollutants may negatively affect aquatic life and human health. To date, in the city of Monteria and in the department of Córdoba, any investigations has been reported that allows evidence of the presence of emerging pollutants in surface water, for human and residual consumption.
Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the presence of five common emerging pollutants: naproxen, ibuprofen, gemfibrozil, caffeine and triclosan in samples of water for human, residual and surface consumption collected in the north of Colombia, representing thus one of the first studies to report the presence of these compounds in water sources in this region.
Methodology: Solid phase extraction (SPE) was used for the analysis of the water samples; the detection and quantification were carried out by high efficiency liquid chromatography with a diode array detector and molecular fluorescence (HPLC-DAD-FLD).
Results and conclusions: Ibuprofen was the most frequently found compound in the water samples, opposite to triclosan, which was the least detected (2.25 µg / L), caffeine was found with a maximum of 43.38 µg/L, while concentrations of naproxen and ibuprofen were between 0.047 and 10.21 µg/L, which is an important health concern due to presence of these compounds in drinking waters. These results show the anthropogenic pressure exerted on the aquatic compartments, which could become an environmental problem that may affect the dynamics and ecosystem services. It was found that the water supply plants do not take into account the presence of these compounds in their purification systems, which could become a public health issue in the future.
Ibuprofen was found most frequently in all three the water sources, in contrast to triclosan, which was the least frequently detected at low levels (2.25 µg / L), caffeine was found with a maximum of 43.38 µg/L, while naproxen and ibuprofen concentrations were between 0.047 and 10.21 µg/L. These results show the anthropogenic pressure exerted on the aquatic compartments, which could become an environmental problem in the future. At the same time, it shows that the water supply plants do not take into account the presence of these compounds in their purification systems; Although the concentrations reported are low, it does not indicate that they do not represent any type of risk
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