Recent studies indict the growing trend of pharmaceuticals as environmental pollutants due to improper disposal of drugs into public wastewater systems and through excreta (urine, feces, etc.) of patients.  Incomplete removal during clean-up results in pharmaceuticals and/or associated derivatives entering the drinking water.  Technological advances allow for the detection more compounds in a given time frame due to the capabilities of high resolution and mass accuracy that newer mass spectrometers possess. Using these advances a method with a five minute run time was developed to detect and quantify fifteen pharmaceuticals and their metabolites that are commonly reported in New Jersey tap water. This study involved testing high risk areas in various New Jersey's counties. These results depicted how much a role improper disposal of pharmaceuticals play in our drinking water, and how there is a need for these communities to begin developing programs for the proper disposal of pharmaceuticals.

Detection and characterization of pharmaceuticals in NJ drinking water using ultra high performance liquid chromatography and high resolution mass spectrometry

244th National Meeting (2012)

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