Antidepressants are one of the most highly prescribed medications in the United States. A primary route for these pharmaceuticals into the environment is from wastewater treatment plants, including terrestrial environments that receive wastewater biosolids. A solvent microextraction method was developed for the extraction of a suite of antidepressants and their metabolites in earthworms living in biosolid-amended soil. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was coupled with the extraction technique for quantitative determination. To determine the potential for antidepressants to enter the terrestrial food chain from the land application of biosolids, a test plot was treated with local municipal biosolids three times from July 2013 to November 2013. Samples of the biosolids, treated soil, worms residing in the soil, and controls were extracted using the optimized solvent microextraction. The extracts were analyzed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Antidepressants were detected in all samples except the controls. The determined values were used to calculate the bioaccumulation factor (BAF) of the antidepressants in the worms. Sertraline, fluoxetine, and venlafaxine were the most commonly detected antidepressants in the worms. Their BAFs were determined to be 5.1, 190 and 3.4, respectively.

Quantitative determination of  antidepressants in biosolid-amended soil and earthworms

247th National Meeting (2014)

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