Investigation of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites in Brazilian hospital wastewater by LC-QTOF MS screening combined with a preliminary exposure and in silico risk assessment.

This work evaluates the occurrence of pharmaceuticals, with special emphasis on their metabolites, in raw hospital wastewater (HWW) using wide-scope screening based on liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry. The applied strategy uses an extended purpose-built database, containing >1000 pharmaceuticals and 250 metabolites. Raw HWW samples from a hospital located in south Brazil were collected over six months, with a monthly sampling frequency.