And improving the knowledge and perceptions about EPV, especially among pharmacy professionals, is the first step towards addressing the environmental impact of pharmaceuticals. A large number of multiresidue methods are being developed for the determination of several families of these compounds with only one extraction step to minimize sample handling and treatment.Įcopharmacovigilance (EPV) is now a well-accepted critical component for the control of potential environmental risk posed by pharmaceutical residues. Liquid chromatography and gas chromatography mainly coupled to tandem mass spectrometry are usually the employed analytical techniques. Most studies focus on minimizing the number of analysis steps and on the use of the lowest amount of solvents in the sample treatment step. The sample preparation techniques include classical liquid–liquid extraction and solid-phase extraction, but also recent microextraction techniques such as solid-phase microextraction, stir-bar sorptive extraction, dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction, ultrasound-assisted emulsification microextraction, or microextraction by packed sorbent. The article is mainly focused on sample preparation and on instrumental techniques most used for the detection and quantification of the analytes of interest. This review is devoted to analytical methods published in the scientific literature in the last 10 years for the determination of emerging contaminants in aquatic media. In this article, the recent analytical methods for the analysis of biotoxins that can affect freshwater environments, drinking water reservoirs and supply are reviewed. They range from the immunochemistry to analytical methods based on gas chromatography or liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry analysers. In the last few decades, a substantial labour of research has been carried out to obtain robust and sensitive analytical methods able to determine their occurrence in the environment. Mycotoxins and phytotoxins can produce damages in the aquatic environment including water reservoirs, with the consequent potential impact on human health. Among the different groups, bacterial toxins, Biotoxins are generated to protect organisms from external agents also in the act of predation. Natural toxins can be classified according to their origin into biotoxins produced by microorganisms (fungal biotoxins or mycotoxins, algal and bacterial toxins), plant toxins or phytotoxins and animal toxins. Therefore, based on the results of this study, the farmland drainage should be controlled to reduce the steroid hormone pollution in Chaohu Lake.

The discharge of steroid hormones from the four rivers to Chaohu Lake was approximately 75.1 kg year−1, with the highest contributor being 17α-estradiol (24 kg year−1). This indicates that both untreated municipal sewage and farmland drainage were the major sources. The water in the Nanfei River had high concentrations of estriol and 17α-estradiol. In addition, 17α-estradiol was verified as the major factor in the contribution of farmland drainage to the pollution in these rivers.

The main steroid hormone in the water of the Hangbu River and Chaohu Lake was 17α-estradiol, the same as that in the farmland drainage. This confirmed the deduction that untreated municipal sewage was the major source of steroid hormone residues in these two rivers. In the Shiwuli River and the Pai River, the dominant steroid hormones (estrone and estriol) were the same as those in the untreated municipal sewage. The dominant steroid hormone in the sediment of Chaohu Lake and the upstream rivers was 17α-estradiol. All of the target steroid hormones except estriol were detected in the sediment in concentrations of ND–16344 ng kg−1. Three steroids-estrone, estriol, and 17α-estradiol-were found in relatively high residual concentrations in the water, with maximum concentrations of 69.5 ng L−1, 51.5 ng L−1, and 23.3 ng L−1, respectively. Concentrations of the seven target steroid hormones ranged from below the detection limit (ND) to 69.5 ng L−1 in the water of Chaohu Lake and the upstream rivers. Seven steroid hormones (estrone, 17α-estradiol, 17β-estradiol, estriol, testosterone, androstenedione, and progesterone) were analyzed from surface water and sediment sampled from Chaohu Lake, its upstream rivers (the Hangbu River, Nanfei River, Shiwuli River, and Pai River), drainage from the adjacent farmland, and treated and untreated municipal sewage. Natural steroid hormones in the aquatic environment have attracted increasing attention because of their strong endocrine disrupting potency.

Mira waters