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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

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (41673022, 41603021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Eco-geochemistry, Ministry of Natural Resources of China, National Research Center for Geo-analysis (NRCGA), Beijing, 100037, China

    Yu Zheng, Guo-Hui Lu, Nan Gai, Zhu Rao & Yong-Liang Yang

  2. College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Yu Zheng, Peng-Wei Shao & Quan-Sheng Zhao

  3. China Institute of Geo-Environment Monitoring (CIGEM), Beijing, 100081, China

    Hai-Tao Piao

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  1. Yu Zheng
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Correspondence to Guo-Hui Lu or Quan-Sheng Zhao.

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Zheng, Y., Lu, GH., Shao, PW. et al. 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. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 78, 579–588 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-020-00725-y

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