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Luo Q, Chen C, Lai RWS, Xu S, Adedipe DT, Zhou GJ, Boxall ABA, Brooks BW, Leung KMY. A robust method to quantify pharmaceuticals for the United Nations endorsed Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM) Programme. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2025; 215:117860. [PMID: 40121722 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.117860] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2024] [Revised: 03/19/2025] [Accepted: 03/19/2025] [Indexed: 03/25/2025]
Abstract
Following human and animal consumption, pharmaceuticals often remain incompletely metabolized, entering aquatic ecosystems via sources like wastewater discharges, landfill leachates, and aquaculture farms, thereby eventually reaching the ocean through estuaries. This influx poses a significant threat to marine ecosystems. The Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM) Programme, endorsed by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), aims to establish a standardized method for monitoring pharmaceuticals in the world's estuaries. This study was performed for simultaneously quantifying 65 pharmaceuticals in small-volume of water samples. The findings revealed that using 20 mL water yielded optimal recoveries between 60 % and 130 %. The influence of pH, salinity and sample matrix on the performance of the method was minimal. 45-50 pharmaceuticals remained stable over a seven-day storage period at both 4 °C and 25 °C. This cost-effective and user-friendly method paves the way for the GEM Programme to monitor pharmaceuticals in over 100 estuaries worldwide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiong Luo
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China
| | - Chong Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China.
| | - Racliffe Weng Seng Lai
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China; Department of Ocean Science and Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, The University of Macau, Macau 999078, China
| | - Shaopeng Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China
| | - Demilade T Adedipe
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China
| | - Guang-Jie Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China; Department of Ecology and Institute of Hydrobiology, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
| | | | - Bryan W Brooks
- Department of Environmental Science, Baylor University Waco, TX, USA
| | - Kenneth Mei Yee Leung
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China; School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China.
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