title: Screening of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in wastewater and surface waters of Spain and Italy by high resolution mass spectrometry using UHPLC-QTOF MS and LC-LTQ-Orbitrap MS.
abstract: The existence of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs (PIDs) in environmental waters has led many analytical chemists to develop screening methods for monitoring purposes. Water samples can contain a huge number of possible contaminants, commonly at low concentrations, which makes their detection and identification problematic. Liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) has proven itself effective in the screening of environmental contaminants. The present work investigates the use of the most popular HRMS instruments, quadrupole time-of-flight and linear trap quadrupole-Orbitrap, from two different laboratories. A suspect screening for PIDs was carried out on wastewater (influent and effluent) and surface water samples from Castellón, Eastern Spain, and Cremona, Northern Italy, incorporating a database of 107 PIDs (including 220 fragment ions). A comparison between the findings of both instruments and of the samples was made which highlights the advantages and drawbacks of the strategies applied in each case. In total, 28 compounds were detected and/or identified by either/both instruments with irbesartan, valsartan, benzoylecgonine and caffeine being the most commonly found compounds across all samples.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Pesticides and Water, University Jaume I, Avda. Sos Baynat, 12071, Castellón, Spain.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bade
authors.affiliation: Environmental Biomarkers Unit, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via La Masa 19, 20156, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Nikolaos I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Rousis
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Pesticides and Water, University Jaume I, Avda. Sos Baynat, 12071, Castellón, Spain.
authors.forename: Lubertus
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bijlsma
authors.affiliation: Environmental Biomarkers Unit, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via La Masa 19, 20156, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gracia-Lor
authors.affiliation: Environmental Biomarkers Unit, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via La Masa 19, 20156, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Castiglioni
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Pesticides and Water, University Jaume I, Avda. Sos Baynat, 12071, Castellón, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Sancho
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Pesticides and Water, University Jaume I, Avda. Sos Baynat, 12071, Castellón, Spain. hernandf@uji.es.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hernandez
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000737:chemistry*; D007558:Italy; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000737:chemistry*; D013030:Spain; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: High resolution mass spectrometry; Illicit drugs; Liquid chromatography; Pharmaceuticals; Screening