(1) The occurrence and accumulation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment are recognized scientific concerns. Many of these compounds are disposed of in an unchanged or metabolized form through sewage systems and wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). WWTP processes do not completely eliminate all active substances or their metabolites. Therefore, they systematically leach into the water system and are increasingly contaminating ground, surface, and drinking water, representing a health risk largely ignored by legislative bodies. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, a significantly larger amount of medicines and protective products were consumed. It is therefore likely that contamination of water sources has increased, and in the case of groundwater with a delayed effect. As a result, it is necessary to develop an accurate, rapid, and easily available method applicable to routine screening analyses of potable water to monitor and estimate their potential health risk. (2) A multi-residue UHPLC-MS/MS analytical method designed for the identification of 52 pharmaceutical products was developed and used to monitor their presence in drinking water. (3) The optimized method achieved good validation parameters, with recovery of 70-120% of most analytes and repeatability achieving results within 20%. In real samples of drinking water, at least one analyte above the limit of determination was detected in each of the 15 tap water and groundwater samples analyzed. (4) These findings highlight the need for legislation to address pharmaceutical contamination in the environment.
- MeSH
- Water Pollutants, Chemical * analysis MeSH
- Chromatography, Liquid MeSH
- COVID-19 * epidemiology MeSH
- Cosmetics * analysis MeSH
- Pharmaceutical Preparations MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Environmental Monitoring methods MeSH
- Pandemics MeSH
- Drinking Water * chemistry MeSH
- Tandem Mass Spectrometry methods MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
Humans are widely exposed to phthalates and their novel substitutes, and considering the negative health effects associated with some phthalates, it is crucial to understand population levels and exposure determinants. This study is focused on 300 urine samples from teenagers (aged 12-17) and 300 from young adults (aged 18-37) living in Czechia collected in 2019 and 2020 to assess 17 plasticizer metabolites as biomarkers of exposure. We identified widespread phthalate exposure in the study population. The diethyl phthalate metabolite monoethyl phthalate (MEP) and three di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate metabolites were detected in the urine of >99% of study participants. The highest median concentrations were found for metabolites of low-molecular-weight (LMW) phthalates: mono-n-butyl phthalate (MnBP), monoisobutyl phthalate (MiBP) and MEP (60.7; 52.6 and 17.6 μg/L in young adults). 1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid diisononyl ester (DINCH) metabolites were present in 68.2% of the samples with a median of 1.24 μg/L for both cohorts. Concentrations of MnBP and MiBP were similar to other European populations, but 5-6 times higher than in populations in North America. We also observed large variability in phthalate exposures within the study population, with 2-3 orders of magnitude differences in urinary metabolites between high and low exposed individuals. The concentrations varied with season, gender, age, and lifestyle factors. A relationship was found between high levels of MEP and high overall use of personal care products (PCPs). Cluster analysis suggested that phthalate exposures depend on season and multiple lifestyle factors, like time spent indoors and use of PCPs, which combine to lead to the observed widespread presence of phthalate metabolites in both study populations. Participants who spent more time indoors, particularly noticeably during colder months, had higher levels of high-molecular weight phthalate metabolites, whereas participants with higher PCP use, particularly women, tended to have higher concentration of LMW phthalate metabolites.
- MeSH
- Diethylhexyl Phthalate * urine MeSH
- Cosmetics * analysis MeSH
- Phthalic Acids * urine MeSH
- Environmental Pollutants * urine MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Adolescent MeSH
- Young Adult MeSH
- Environmental Exposure analysis MeSH
- Life Style MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Adolescent MeSH
- Young Adult MeSH
- Female MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
A miniaturized extraction/preconcentration method based on an aqueous biphasic system (μ-ABS) was developed with reagents commonly used as food additives: cholinium chloride (ChCl) as main extraction phase, K2HPO4 as salting-out agent, and water as the main component (being the sample for analyses). With the aim of obtaining high enrichment factors, miniaturization, and adequate analytical performance, a point in the biphasic region with the lowest amount of ChCl was selected, corresponding to 1.55% (w/w) of ChCl, 59.5% (w/w) of K2HPO4, and 38.95% (w/w) of water. The green μ-ABS (attending to its main elements and performance mode) was used in combination with high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection (HPLC-DAD) for the determination of 9 personal care products in wastewater samples. The μ-ABS-HPLC-DAD method showed high enrichment factors (up to 100), and quantitative extraction efficiencies for those compounds containing OH groups in their structure, which can undergo hydrogen bonding with ChCl. Thus, limits of quantification down to 0.8 µg·L-1 and extraction efficiencies between 66.4 and 108% (concentration levels of 1.3 and 13 µg·L-1) were reached for the group of parabens and the UV-filter benzophenone-3. The method is characterized by the use of non-harmful reagents and the absence of organic solvents in the entire sample preparation procedure, while being simple, low-cost, easily compatible with HPLC, and highly efficient.
- MeSH
- Water Pollutants, Chemical analysis MeSH
- Chlorides analysis MeSH
- Phosphates analysis MeSH
- Cosmetics analysis MeSH
- Miniaturization * MeSH
- Wastewater chemistry MeSH
- Reproducibility of Results MeSH
- Solvents chemistry MeSH
- Water analysis MeSH
- Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid methods MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
Synthetic musk compounds are extensively used in personal care and cosmetic products all over the world. Afterwards, they are discharged into the environment mainly because they are not completely removed in wastewater treatment plants. The aim of this study was to investigate if a passive sampler is applicable for the monitoring of tonalide, a polycyclic musk compound, in the aquatic environment and to compare the levels of tonalide in pesticide-polar organic chemical integrative sampler (POCIS) and biota. For this purpose, four sampling localities on the three biggest rivers in the Czech Republic were selected. Tonalide was determined in POCIS at all sampling sites in the concentration ranging from 9 ng/POCIS (Labe River, Hradec Králové) to 25 ng/POCIS (Morava River, Blatec). The locality with the most frequent occurrence of tonalide in biota samples was the Morava River which well corresponded with the highest tonalide concentration in POCIS among sampling sites. The highest number of positive tonalide detections among all studied biota samples was found in fish plasma. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first evidence that tonalide bioaccumulates in fish blood. Tonalide levels were below the limit of quantification in benthos samples at all sampling sites.
- MeSH
- Water Pollutants, Chemical analysis MeSH
- Cosmetics analysis MeSH
- Limit of Detection MeSH
- Environmental Monitoring instrumentation methods MeSH
- Wastewater chemistry MeSH
- Pesticides analysis MeSH
- Rivers chemistry MeSH
- Biota MeSH
- Tetrahydronaphthalenes analysis MeSH
- Aquatic Organisms chemistry MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Geographicals
- Czech Republic MeSH
In this study, the stability of 124 target analytes in influent and effluent wastewater samples during short-term (4°C) and long-term (-18°C) storage was assessed. The most common storage scenario was considered, in which samples were frozen immediately after sampling without any pre-treatment. During short-term storage more analytes remained stable (concentration during storage was in the range of 60-120% of the initial concentration) at 4°C than at -18°C. During long-term storage (-18°C), three types of behavior were observed: constant concentrations throughout the experimental period, decreasing concentrations with time, and loss of the compound from the sample after freezing. Differences between effluent and influent samples were observed for 50 out of 124 tested PPCPs. The amount of stable analytes decreased with time during long-term storage. 72% and 56% of the target compounds in the effluent and influent wastewater, respectively, remained stable during 60days of storage. The number of stable compounds decreased to 57 (46%) and 46 (37%) in the effluent and influent, respectively, over 120days. 15 Pharmaceuticals were lost after freezing/thawing cycle. The results stress the importance of storage factors during analysis of pharmaceuticals in wastewater. The stability of target compounds in the samples under the planned storage conditions should be checked before starting the experiment to obtain reliable data.
- MeSH
- Time Factors MeSH
- Water Pollutants, Chemical analysis chemistry MeSH
- Cosmetics analysis chemistry MeSH
- Pharmaceutical Preparations analysis chemistry MeSH
- Waste Disposal, Fluid MeSH
- Wastewater chemistry MeSH
- Tandem Mass Spectrometry MeSH
- Temperature MeSH
- Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid MeSH
- Freezing MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
The cyclic voltammetric behavior of minoxidil was studied in a buffer with pH 3. Contradictory to that mentioned in a previously published work, the cyclic voltammogram of minoxidil exhibited a single 2-electron irreversible reduction wave in a buffer with pH 3. This wave was attributed to the reduction of the N›O bond. The cathodic differential pulse wave height decreased on the increase of pH till it disappeared in solution with pH 7.2. The quantitative trace determination of minoxidil was studied at a hanging mercury drop electrode by adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry. A fully validated sensitive procedure based on controlled adsorptive accumulation of the drug onto a HMDE was developed for its direct determination. Accumulation of minoxidil was found to be optimized in 0.1 M Britton–Robinson buffer with pH 2.0 as supporting electrolyte under the following conditions: accumulation potential –0.2 V, accumulation time 40 s, scan rate 40 mV s–1 and pulse height 50 mV. The proposed procedure was applied successfully for determination of minoxidil in its topical solution and illegal shampoo and cream. The mean recoveries of the minoxidil were 99.8, 97.8 and 96.7% and with RSD of 0.86, 1.24 and 1.89% in pharmaceutical topical solution, shampoo and cream, respectively.
- MeSH
- Cosmetics analysis MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Placental Extracts adverse effects MeSH
- Skin Aging drug effects MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
Kontaktní přecitlivělost na kosmetické přípravky je vyvolána dlouhodobým a opakovaným používáním kosmetických přípravků. Může být vyvolána účinnou látkou i látkami pomocnými, které však mají nízký senzibilizační potenciál. Kosmetický průmysl je dynamickým lukrativním a bouřlivě se rozvíjejícím průmyslem, kde se vyvíjejí a hledají stále nové látky a chemikálie. Díky masivnímu používání se objevují nové alergeny. Cílem článku je upozornit na některé nově popsané alergeny kosmetických přípravků a krášlicích procedur.
Cosmetic contact hypersensitivity is commonly seen in patients after long-lasting and repeated application of cosmetics. It may be caused by active ingredients but also by other ingredients with low sensitisation capacity. The cosmetic business is a dynamic, lucrative and fast-moving industry in which new chemicals are developed. New allergens are always being produced. The aim of article was to give notice about some of the new cosmetic allergens.
