Drugs and personal care products as ubiquitous pollutants: occurrence and distribution of clofibric acid, caffeine and DEET in the North Sea.
An analytical method is presented, which allows the simultaneous extraction of neutral and acidic compounds from 20-L seawater samples at ambient pH (approximately 8.3). It is based on a solid-phase extraction by means of a polystyrene-divinylbenzene sorbent and gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric detection, and provides detection limits in the lower pg/L range. The method was applied to the screening of samples from different North Sea areas for clofibric acid, diclofenac, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, propyphenazone, caffeine and N,N-diethyl-3-toluamide (DEET). Whereas clofibric acid, caffeine and DEET showed to be present throughout the North Sea in concentrations of up to 1.3, 16 and 1.1 ng/L, respectively, propyphenazone could only be detected after further clean-up. Diclofenac and ibuprofen were found in the estuary of the river Elbe (6.2 and 0.6 ng/L, respectively) but in none of the marine samples. Ketoprofen was below the detection limit in all samples.
Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Hamburg, Germany.
Stefan
S
Weigel
Jan
J
Kuhlmann
Heinrich
H
Hühnerfuss
D002110:Caffeine / Q000032:analysis*; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000032:analysis*; D002995:Clofibric Acid / Q000032:analysis*; D003671:DEET / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D000960:Hypolipidemic Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D007302:Insect Repellents / Q000032:analysis*; D009659:North Sea; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D000960:Hypolipidemic Agents; D007302:Insect Repellents; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D003671:DEET; D002110:Caffeine; D002995:Clofibric Acid