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A quantitative, selective andsensitive method on liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) coupled to analysis by gas chromatography/massspectrometry (GC/MS) is described in this paper for analysis of a selected group of chemical compounds usedas pharmaceuticals and personal care prodcuts (PPCPs). They are considered as persistent-emergentpollutants in natural and residual waters. The studied PPCPs - ibuprofen, diclofenac, bezafibrate,diazepan, carbamazepin, galaxolide, tonalide, celestolide, traseolide and cashmeran - represent three categories of PPCPs: acids and neutral pharmaceuticals and polycyclicsynthetic musk, all of them with wide use. The effectiveness of the proposed method was higherthan 90% in three different matrices; quantification limits were at order of ng/L range and precisionwas lower than 20% in the working range. The estimated uncertainty was about 23% for allcompounds. To assess the performance of the method, natural and wastewaters were analyzed. Theresults showed that galaxolide, tonalide, ibuprofen, diclofenac and bezafibrate are the mostfrequently identified PPCPs in these waters. Currently, concentrations found in the wastewater areten times higher than those found in natural waters. Ibuprofen was found between 0.1 and 0.2 ppblevels in the natural waters and higher to 1 ppb in wastewater ones; diclofenac usually presents alower concentration than ibuprofen. Galaxolide was the main musk compound found at 0.3 and13.5 g/L in natural and residual waters, respectively. No PPCPs or very low concentrations werefound in the tap water samples analyzed.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 11/15/2004 Number of Pages: 37 File Size: 1 file , 1 MB