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Occurrence and suitability of pharmaceuticals and personal care products as molecular markers for raw wastewater contamination in surface water and groundwater

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Abstract

This study aimed to provide the first and comprehensive data on the occurrence of 17 target pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in urban water environment in Singapore. Meanwhile, this study also verified the suitability of these PPCPs as specific markers of raw wastewater contamination in receiving water bodies in highly urbanized areas where both surface water and groundwater are not impacted by the discharge of treated wastewater effluents. Analytical results of wastewater showed that among 17 target PPCPs examined, only 5 PPCPs were detected in 100 % of raw wastewater samples, including acetaminophen (ACT), carbamazepine (CBZ), caffeine (CF), diethyltoluamide (DEET), and salicylic acid (SA). Similarly, these PPCPs were found in most surface water and groundwater. Interestingly, the three PPCPs (ACT, CBZ, and SA) were only detected in surface water and groundwater in the sampling sites close to relatively older sewer systems, while they were absent in background samples that were collected from the catchment with no known wastewater sources. This suggests that ACT, CBZ, and SA can be used as specific molecular markers of raw wastewater in surface water and groundwater. This study also confirmed that CF and DEET were not really associated with wastewater sources, thus cannot serve well as specific molecular markers of wastewater contamination in receiving water bodies. To the best knowledge of the authors, the use of ACT and SA as specific molecular markers of raw wastewater contamination in urban surface waters and groundwater was first reported. Further studies on the use of ACT, CBZ, and SA along with other chemical/microbial markers are recommended to identify and differentiate contamination sources of surface waters/groundwater.

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by PUB Singapore under the project (R-302-000-005-490). The authors sincerely thank the staffs of Operation and Maintenance Division, Water Reclamation (Network) Department, PUB Singapore for the assistance in sample collection. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions which helped us improve the quality of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Drive 2, Singapore, 117576, Singapore

    Ngoc Han Tran, Jiangyong Hu & Say Leong Ong

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Jinhua Li

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  1. Ngoc Han Tran
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  2. Jinhua Li
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Correspondence to Jiangyong Hu.

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Responsible editor: Ester Heath

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Tran, N.H., Li, J., Hu, J. et al. Occurrence and suitability of pharmaceuticals and personal care products as molecular markers for raw wastewater contamination in surface water and groundwater. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 4727–4740 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-2428-9

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