Many chemicals are used all around us every day, including potentially hazardous chemicals that can land in surface waters, which represent a habitat for many aquatic organisms. Water, known as the "universal solvent" can dissolve more substances than any other liquid on Earth, so it is also extremely sensitive to pollution. Urban or industrial wastewater discharges, agricultural and industrial activities, tourism, etc. all contribute to the pollution of the aquatic environment.
Slovenia has a short coastline in the Adriatic Sea to the southwest. The Adriatic Sea is influenced by many human activities that take place in the densely populated areas of this region. Due to the potentially dangerous consequences of the presence of organic emerging pollutants in waters and their rapid increase, data on the concentrations and behavior of these pollutants are urgently needed. Therefore, with my diploma thesis I wanted to find out the extent of pollution of the Slovenian sea with emerging pollutants.
To monitor the pollution of the Slovenian sea, I used the already optimized solid phase extraction (SPE) method together with the UHPLC-MS/MS method. I monitored 18 emerging pollutants belonging to the groups of pharmaceuticals, novel pesticides, industrial compounds, UV-filters, and artificial sweeteners. I used caffeine as a reference contaminant. Seawater samples were collected in the south-eastern Bay of Trieste.
Solid phase extraction method has already been optimized with suitable conditions. Before the extraction of samples, I determined the breakthrough volume of SPE. The optimal volume of the applied sample was 350 mL. I performed the following steps: conditioning, sample application, sorbent drying, elution, extract drying with nitrogen, and reconstitution. The method provided sub-1 ng L$^{-1}$ limits of detection and <20% RSDs for the majority of target pollutants. The results of the analyses were reproducible. Seawater appeared to be systematically contaminated with caffeine (max. 108.7 ng L$^{-1}$), UV filters (max. 42.1 ng L$^{-1}$), tris(2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (max. 4.24 ng L$^{-1}$) and telmisartan (max 1.12 ng L$^{-1}$).
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