Source Tracking and Risk Assessment of Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products in Surface Waters of Qingdao, China, with Emphasis on Influence of Animal Farming in Rural Areas.

The occurrence and potential sources of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in surface waters from a large coastal city Qingdao, North China, were investigated. Forty-five compounds were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The results showed that 28 compounds of PPCPs were detected. The most frequently detected compounds were atrazine, clarithromycin, nonylphenol, and bisphenol A with the detection rates > 90%. Paracetamol showed the highest concentration up to 4400 ng/L (mean 152.5 ng/L), followed by ampicillin (max. 2980 ng/L) with the highest mean concentration (229.3 ng/L), iopromide (max. 1744 ng/L, mean 74.5 ng/L), atrazine (max. 1612 ng/L, mean 96.1 ng/L), and bisphenol A (max. 1384 ng/L, mean 78.3 ng/L). The contamination levels and composition profiles of PPCPs along the rivers flowing through rural and urban areas and in seawater showed large spatial variability. Typical source markers and principle component analysis were used to track and differentiate the potential PPCP sources. The emphases of the study were the influence of animal farming in rural areas on PPCP composition profiles and the ecological risk. The results indicated that PPCPs in Qingdao surface water mainly came from three potential sources, i.e., treated wastewater (effluents from WWTPs), untreated wastewater, and nonpoint sources in agricultural areas.

Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products in Surface Waters from the Inner City of Beijing, China: Influence of Hospitals and Reclaimed Water Irrigation.

Surface waters from five districts in the inner city of Beijing were collected for analysis of 43 target compounds of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) to understand the spatial distribution patterns of different groups of PPCPs in the central urban area of a metropolitan city characterized by many hospitals and public parks. The total concentrations of PPCPs showed large spatial variability, ranging from 71.1 to 2400 ng/L. The x-ray contrast medium iopromide was the compound with the highest concentrations. Pharmaceuticals showed similar spatial distributional patterns with large hospitals. Positive correlations between iopromide and pharmaceuticals were observed. In contrast, in general there is no correlation between iopromide and personal care products. The concentrations of PPCPs in the landscape waters were not high but were characterized by high proportions of acidic, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs with low or even negative removal efficiencies in the WWTP in Beijing, suggesting that the reclaimed water irrigation can be another source of PPCPs in surface waters in the inner city of Beijing.

Perfluoroalkyl Substances in Water from the Yangtze River and Its Tributaries at the Dividing Point Between the Middle and Lower Reaches.

The Yangtze River drainage basins are China's most important economic development zones and also the locations of several large-scale fluorine chemical industries. In order to reveal the contribution from the tributaries at the dividing point between the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River with respect to perfluorinated substances (PFASs), 17 PFAS compounds in surface water, groundwater, and tap water samples were analyzed in the tributary system of the Jiujiang section of the Yangtze River. The total concentrations of PFASs in the surface waters ranged from 7.8 to 586.2 ng/L. High proportion of short-chain compound PFBS in surface waters in Nanchang City, Poyang Lake, and the Yangtze River was observed which is likely of WWTPs' origin.