Pharmaceutical Contaminants Occurrence and Ecological Risk Assessment Along the Romanian Black Sea Coast

Pharmaceutical Contaminants Occurrence and Ecological Risk Assessment Along the Romanian Black Sea Coast

The work aimed to investigate the presence of pharmaceutical compounds from the anti-inflammatory class in seawater from the Romanian Black Sea coast and to assess the ecological risk of these substances on the most sensitive organisms. Using the solid-phase extraction technique (SPE) followed by li...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vasile-Ion Iancu, Laura-Florentina Chiriac, Iuliana Paun, Cristina Dinu, Florinela Pirvu, Victor Cojocaru, Anda Gabriela Tenea, Ioana Antonia Cimpean
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-06-01
Series:Toxics
Subjects:
NSAIDs
seawater
solid-phase extraction—SPE
liquid chromatography mass spectrometry in tandem—LC-MS/MS
ecological risk assessment
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6304/13/6/498
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Summary:The work aimed to investigate the presence of pharmaceutical compounds from the anti-inflammatory class in seawater from the Romanian Black Sea coast and to assess the ecological risk of these substances on the most sensitive organisms. Using the solid-phase extraction technique (SPE) followed by liquid chromatography separation and mass spectrometry detection (LC-MS/MS) of the compounds, the concentrations of these contaminants in selected seawater samples were determined. Ibuprofen was the most commonly detected compound with a frequency of 42.9%, followed by ketoprofen at 31.0.%, diclofenac at 23.8%, and naproxen at 21.4%. The maximum concentrations of pharmaceutical products varied between 13.4 ng/L ketoprofen and 13,575 ng/L caffeine. The order of decreasing maximum concentrations of pharmaceutical compounds in the water of the Black Sea was CAF > IBU > NAP > DIC > KET. The dominant and ubiquitous compound that was determined with the maximum concentration values was caffeine. Strong correlations were observed between three compounds (naproxen: diclofenac, diclofenac: ketoprofen) suggesting the same pollution source. Through the ecological risk assessment, it was observed that both caffeine and ibuprofen can generate high ecological risks for some echinoderms, crustaceans, and fish.
ISSN:2305-6304

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