title: An assessment of the concentrations of pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater treatment plants on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain).
abstract: An assessment of the concentrations of thirteen different therapeutic pharmaceutical compounds was conducted on water samples obtained from different wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) using solid phase extraction and high- and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry detection (HPLC-MS/MS and UHPLC-MS/MS), was carried out. The target compounds included ketoprofen and naproxen (anti-inflammatories), bezafibrate (lipid-regulating), carbamazepine (anticonvulsant), metamizole (analgesic), atenolol (β-blocker), paraxanthine (stimulant), fluoxetine (antidepressant), and levofloxacin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin and sarafloxacin (fluoroquinolone antibiotics). The relative standard deviations obtained in method were below 11%, while the detection and quantification limits were in the range of 0.3 - 97.4 ng·L(-1) and 1.1 - 324.7 ng·L(-1), respectively. The water samples were collected from two different WWTPs located on the island of Gran Canaria in Spain over a period of one year. The first WWTP (denoted as WWTP1) used conventional activated sludge for the treatment of wastewater, while the other plant (WWTP2) employed a membrane bioreactor system for wastewater treatment. Most of the pharmaceutical compounds detected in this study during the sampling periods were found to have concentrations ranging between 0.02 and 34.81 μg·L(-1).
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Spain.
authors.forename: Rayco
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guedes-Alonso
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Afonso-Olivares
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Montesdeoca-Esponda
authors.forename: Zoraida
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sosa-Ferrera
authors.forename: José Juan
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Santana-Rodríguez
keywords: Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Pharmaceutical compounds; Solid-phase extraction; Wastewater