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National rivers and streams assessment survey: evaluating the extent of selected human prescription pharmaceuticals in United States surface waters
Citation:
BATT, A., J. M. LAZORCHAK, L. STAHL, AND J. Wathen. National rivers and streams assessment survey: evaluating the extent of selected human prescription pharmaceuticals in United States surface waters. Presented at 7th Annual LC/MS/MS Workshop on Environmental Applications and Food Safety, Buffalo, NY, June 13, 2011.
Impact/Purpose:
Results from this study will be presented and used by ORD and OW to assess the extent of contamination of these emerging contaminants in our nation's urban rivers.
Description:
The Ecological Exposure Research Division (EERD) has prioritized a list of the most prescribed active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in the U.S. based on the potential of their wastewater residues to cause biological effects. A method using selective solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography in combination with tandem mass spectrometry was developed for the analysis of the top rated APIs from that process, which includes 48 APIs and six selected metabolites. The National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA) is a statistical survey of flowing waters of the U.S. designed to assess the condition of the nation's rivers and streams. The Office of Research and Development (ORD), EERD is working with the Office of Water (Ow) on the current NRSA survey, which consists of approximately 700 sites where fish were collected over the summer of 2008 and 2009. A portion of these sample collection sites (180) have been identified as urban rivers, due to their proximity to urban areas. Surface water samples were collected from each of these urban river sites and analyzed for the presence of over 50 human prescription pharmaceuticals. Several of the target analytes were detected, with concentrations ranging from low ng/L up to 500 ug/L.