Pharmaceutical Formulation Facilities as Sources of Opioids and Other Pharmaceuticals to Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluents

Facilities involved in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products are an under-investigated source of pharmaceuticals to the environment. Between 2004 and 2009, 35 to 38 effluent samples were collected from each of three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in New York and analyzed for seven pharmaceuticals including opioids and muscle relaxants. Two WWTPs (NY2 and NY3) receive substantial flows (>20% of plant flow) from pharmaceutical formulation facilities (PFF) and one (NY1) receives no PFF flow. Samples of effluents from 23 WWTPs across the United States were analyzed once for these pharmaceuticals as part of a national survey. Maximum pharmaceutical effluent concentrations for the national survey and NY1 effluent samples were generally <1 μg/L. Four pharmaceuticals (methadone, oxycodone, butalbital, and metaxalone) in samples of NY3 effluent had median concentrations ranging from 3.4 to >400 μg/L. Maximum concentrations of oxycodone (1700 μg/L) and metaxalone (3800 μg/L) in samples from NY3 effluent exceeded 1000 μg/L. Three pharmaceuticals (butalbital, carisoprodol, and oxycodone) in samples of NY2 effluent had median concentrations ranging from 2 to 11 μg/L. These findings suggest that current manufacturing practices at these PFFs can result in pharmaceuticals concentrations from 10 to 1000 times higher than those typically found in WWTP effluents

Detection of stanozolol in environmental waters using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Background Owing to frequent administration of a wide range of pharmaceutical products, various environmental waters have been found to be contaminated with pharmacologically active substances. For example, stanozolol, a synthetic anabolic steroid, is frequently misused for performance enhancement as well as for illegal growth promoting purposes in veterinary practice. Previously we reported stanozolol in hair samples collected from subjects living in Budapest. For this reason we initiated this study to explore possible environmental sources of steroid contamination. The aim of this study was to develop a method to monitor stanozolol in aqueous matrices using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Results Liquid-liquid extraction using pentane was found to be an efficient method for the extraction of stanozolol from water samples. This was followed by direct detection using LC-MS/MS. The method was capable of detecting 0.25 pg/mL stanozolol when only 5 mL water was processed in the presence of stanozolol D3 as internal standard. Fifteen bottled waters analysed were found to be negative for stanozolol. However, three out of six samples from the Danube river, collected from December '09 to November '10, were found to contain stanozolol at concentrations up to 1.82 pg/mL. In contrast, only one sample (out of six) of urban tap water from Budapest city was found to contain stanozolol, at a concentration of 1.19 pg/mL. Conclusion The method developed is efficient, rapid, reproducible, sensitive and robust for the detection of stanozolol in aqueous matrices