What’s in Your Water? Monitoring Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in Drinking Water by LC-MS/MS

Introduction

Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) are an emerging environmental concern. They include human and veterinary prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, sunscreens, lotions, soaps, and insect repellents. PPCPs can enter the environment through various sources, including municipal wastewater, ground water, surface water, and even drinking water. EPA Method 542 monitors 12 PPCPs using very time-consuming manual offline SPE sample prep, requiring large sample volume (e.g., 1 liter) before analysis by LC-MS/MS to reach desired detection limits. In this presentation, we demonstrate the application of automated online SPE coupled with UHPLC-MS/MS for analysis of these PPCPs in drinking water at low PPT levels with sample size as little as 3 mL.