Occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in fish: results of a national pilot study in the United States.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are being increasingly reported in a variety of biological matrices, including fish tissue; however, screening studies have presently not encompassed broad geographical areas. A national pilot study was initiated in the United States to assess the accumulation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in fish sampled from five effluent-dominated rivers that receive direct discharge from wastewater treatment facilities in Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Orlando, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; and West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA. Fish were also collected from the Gila River, New Mexico, USA, as a reference condition expected to be minimally impacted by anthropogenic influence.

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry screening methods for select UV filters, synthetic musks, alkylphenols, an antimicrobial agent, and an insect repellent in fish.

Two screening methods have been developed for simultaneous determination of ten extensively used personal care products (PCPs) and two alkylphenol surfactants in fish. The methods consisted of extraction, clean-up, derivatization and analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with selected ion monitoring (GC-SIM-MS) or gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) techniques. Among solvents tested to assess recovery of target compounds from 1-g tissue homogenates, acetone was selected as optimal for extracting compounds with dissimilar physicochemical properties from fish tissue.