Screening of indicator pharmaceuticals and personal care products in landfill leachates: a case study in Shanghai, China

Highlights

● A systematic framework was developed to identify i-PPCPs for landfill leachate.

● The wide-scope target analysis offered a basis for comprehensive i-PPCP screening.

● Source-specificity and representativeness analysis helped to refine i-PPCPs.

● Erythromycin, gemfibrozil and albendazole were identified as i-PPCPs for leachate.

Abstract

Identifying potential sources of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment is critical for the effective control of PPCP contamination. Landfill leachate is an important source of PPCPs in water; however, it has barely been involved in source apportionment due to the lack of indicator-PPCPs (i-PPCPs) in landfill leachates. This study provides the first systematic framework for identifying i-PPCPs for landfill leachates based on the wide-scope target monitoring of PPCPs. The number of target PPCPs increased from < 20 in previous studies to 68 in the present study. Fifty-nine PPCPs were detected, with median concentrations in leachate samples ranging from below the method quantification limit (MQL) to 41 μg/L, and 19 of them were rarely reported previously. A total of 29 target compounds were determined to be PPCPs of high concern by principal component analysis according to multiple criteria, including occurrence, exposure potential, and ecological effect. Coupled with source-specificity and representativeness analysis, erythromycin, gemfibrozil, and albendazole showed a significant difference in their occurrence in leachate compared to other potential sources (untreated and treated municipal wastewater and livestock wastewater) and correlated with total PPCP concentrations; these were recommended as i-PPCPs for leachates. Indicator screening procedure can be used to develop a sophisticated source apportionment method to identify sources of PPCPs from adjacent landfills.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Landfill leachates / PPCPs / Indicator / Screening criteria / Source-specificity

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Acknowledgements

This research was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21777042 and 22076045), the Open Research Fund of State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Ecological Effect and Risk Assessment of Chemicals (China) (No. 2022KFYB03), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality’s Yangfan Special Project (China) (No. 23YF1408400), the project supported by Shanghai Talent Development Funding (China).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-023-1716-y and is accessible for authorized users.

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