In recent years, illicit and abused drugs and their human metabolites have emerged as organic pollutants of concern in the environment. Given the polar nature of most of these compounds many analytical methodologies have been developed for their analysis in waters, and only few works have been focused on their presence in environmental solid matrices.  This work presents a sensitive and reliable analytical method for the determination of abused licit and illicit drugs, and some of their metabolites, in sewage sludge. To the authors' knowledge, nine out of the 20 selected analytes, namely, cocaethylene, ephedrine, heroin, alprazolam, lysergic acid diethylamide, its metabolite 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD, and the cannabinoids ?9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabinol, and cannabidiol, are investigated for the first time in this matrix. In the optimized approach, extracts of sludge samples obtained by means of pressurized liquid extraction were further cleaned-up by solid phase extraction. Analyte determination was performed by means of liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Method limits of quantification were below 3.3 ng/g d.w. for all compounds but cannabinoids (8.2-22.5 ng/g d.w.). Extraction losses and matrix effects (ionization suppression between 26% and 89%) were satisfactorily corrected through the use of isotopically labelled analogues. Application of the developed methodology to the analysis of sewage sludge samples revealed that cannabinoids, methadone and its metabolite 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (EDDP) were the most ubiquitous and abundant compounds (>100 ng/g d.w.). In the light of these results, these compounds should deserve special consideration when evaluating water treatment technologies and considering sludge application in agriculture.Acknowledgments: This research has been supported by the EU through the EU FP7 project SOLUTIONS (603437), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CSD2009-00065), and the Catalonia Government (2009-SGR-965). Merck and Biotage are acknowledged for the gift of LC columns and SPE cartridges, respectively. Nicola Mastroianni acknowledges the JAE Program (CSIC-European Social Funds).

Analysis and occurrence of illicit and abused drugs in sewage sludge

248th National Meeting (2014)

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