Practical overview of analytical methodsfor endocrine-disrupting compounds,pharmaceuticals and personal care productsin water and wastewater

摘要

The detection of organic micropollutants, such as endocrine-disrupting compounds,pharmaceuticals and personal care products, in wastewater and the aquatic environmenthas brought increasing concern over their potential adverse ecological and humanimpacts. These compounds are generally present at trace levels (ng1~(-1)) and in complexwater matrices, such as wastewaters and surface waters, making their analysis difficult.Currently, no standardized analytical methods are available for the analysis of organicmicropollutants in environmental waters. Owing to the diversity of physico-chemicalproperties exhibited by the various classes of organic micropollutants, the majority ofestablished analytical methods described in the literature focus on a specific class ofcompounds, with few methods applicable to multi-class compound analysis. As such,analytical challenges and limitations contribute to the lack of understanding of theeffectiveness of drinking water and wastewater treatment processes to remove organicmicropollutants. This paper provides a practical overview of current analytical methodsthat have been developed for the analysis of multiple classes of organic micropollutantsfrom various water matrices and describes the challenges and limitations associated withthe development of these methods.