PW08 Ecotoxicity and Environmental Chemistry of Antibiotics
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Wednesday, 12 November 2003
(PW129) LC/MS/MS Analysis of Waterborne Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products.
Hao, C.1, Lissemore, L.2, Nguyen, B.1, Yang, P.1, Ho, T.1, Solomon, K.2, Seto, P.3, 1 Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada2 Environmental Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada3 CCIW, Environmental Canada, Burlington, Ontario, Canada
ABSTRACT- Of late, there is increasing evidence on the presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment. Therefore, the need for studies that address the types and concentrations of PPCPs present in the environment and their impact becomes important. Using Waters hydrophilic-lipophilic balanced (HLB) SPE cartridges for water sample extraction; an Agilent 1100 LC for separation; and an Applied Biosystems Q Trap triple quadrapole/linear iontrap mass spectrometer via an electrospray ionization source, we have developed a sensitive LC/ESI/MS-MS method for the determination of a wide scope of antibiotics in order to better understand the occurrence, fate, and effect of PPCPs on human and ecosystem health. Thirty three (33) target compounds, including 12 commonly used veterinarian antibiotics and 21 prescribed drugs were divided into 2 groups (positive and negative) for easier multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mass spectrometric analysis. In addition, two 13C-labelled chemical analogs were used as internal standard to enhance the data quality and method precision better. Method validation data was collected using reagent water, treated drinking water, and tributary water samples collected from tributaries, downstream, and drinking water treatment plant along the Grand River in Ontario. The analytical system was demonstrated having a linearity of > 10 3 for most analytes of interest. Typical method detection limits calculated by using US EPA protocol using reagent water was at the ppb ranges. The ability to do the analysis with one single extraction greatly enhanced the sample throughput without sacrificing any data quality. During the field evaluation, the extract of 1-L surface water samples from various locations of tributaries of Grand River, were first screened for the target compounds using retention times and MRM schemes. Quantitative analysis was carried out using internal standard method. The identification of several unknown metabolites of antibiotics using enhanced MS and enhanced product ion scan functions of QTRAP instrument was illustrated as well.
Key words: liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, Electrospray, Multiple Reaction Monitoring, Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products