To characterize the source contributions of chemicals of emerging concern (CECs) from different aquatic environments of Taiwan, we collected water samples from different aquatic systems, which were screened for 30 pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs. The total estimated mass loadings of CECs were 23.1 g/d in southern aquatic systems and 133 g/d in central aquatic systems. We developed an analytical framework combining pollutant fingerprinting, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and principal component analysis with multiple linear regression (PCA-MLR) to infer the pharmaco-signature and source contributions of CECs. Based on this approach, we estimate source contributions of 62.2% for domestic inputs, 16.9% for antibiotics application, and 20.9% for drug abuse/medication in southern aquatic system, compared with 47.3% domestic, 35.1% antibiotic, and 17.6% drug abuse/medication inputs to central aquatic systems. The proposed pharmaco-signature method provides initial insights into the profile and source apportionment of CECs in complex aquatic systems, which are of importance for environmental management.

Department of Marine Environment and Engineering National Sun Yat sen University Kaohsiung Taiwan; Asia Pacific Ocean Research Center National Sun Yat sen University Kaohsiung Taiwan

Department of Marine Environment and Engineering National Sun Yat sen University Kaohsiung Taiwan; Department of Public Health College of Health Science Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan; Asia Pacific Ocean Research Center National Sun Yat sen University Kaohsiung Taiwan; Research Center of Environmental Medicine Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan

Faculty of Chemistry Brno University of Technology Brno Czech Republic

Green Energy and Environment Research Industrial Technology Research Institute Hsinchu Taiwan

School of Energy and Environment City University of Hong Kong Kowloon Hong Kong China

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