Simultaneous determination of selected pharmaceuticals and plasticisers in urban stormwater in Chania (Greece)

ABSTRACT

There is a wide variety of substances that are considered as emerging pollutants because their presence in waterbodies causes serious problems. Their presence in stormwater is also of great importance, but it is less studied. From the variety of emerging pollutants, we have selected to study nine substances in stormwater, six phthalate esters: dimethyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate, di-n-butyl phthalate, benzyl butyl phthalate, bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, di-n-octyl phthalate and three pharmaceuticals: acetaminophen, caffeine and phenacetin. The reasons for the selection were the frequency in use, and the lack of data about their detection in stormwater in Greece and also in other countries. For this purpose, the samples were preconcentrated by solid-phase extraction. The analytes were identified and quantitatively determined by reversed-phase liquid-phase chromatography connected to a diode array detector. The detection limits were in the range from 0.20 to 2.09 μg/L while the recoveries were between 42% and 113%. The results showed that the most abundant pharmaceutical was phenacetin with concentrations from nd to 7.82 μg/L and the most abundant phthalate was dimethyl phthalate with concentrations from nd to 7.9 μg/L.

KEYWORDS:

• Pharmaceuticals
• plasticisers
• reversed-phase liquid chromatography
• stormwater
• urban area of Chania

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This project is implemented through the Operational Program ‘Education and Lifelong Learning’ action Archimedes III and is co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund) and Greek national funds [National Strategic Reference Framework 2007–2013]. Project title: Decision support tool for the management of urban run-off in coastal cities–COASTSURF.