Database-driven screening of South African surface water and the targeted detection of pharmaceuticals using liquid chromatography - High resolution mass spectrometry.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are released into aquatic environments, largely as a result of ineffectual removal during wastewater treatment. Here we present a screening strategy based on the use of three commercially available mass spectral databases, combined into a single searchable entity and parallelized by cluster computing. In addition to this, a targeted solid phase extraction method with Ultra High Pressure Liquid Chromatography coupled to quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF) was used to quantify 99 pharmaceuticals in South African surface water on a national level.