Drugs of abuse and their metabolites in river sediments: Analysis, occurrence in four Spanish river basins and environmental risk assessment

Abstract

The environmental impact produced by the presence of drugs of abuse in sediments has been scarcely studied to date, even though many of them may adsorb onto particulate matter due to their physical-chemical properties. This study presents an analytical method for the determination of 20 drugs of abuse and metabolites in sediments. The validated method was satisfactory in terms of linearity (r2 >0.99), recovery (90–135 %), repeatability (relative standard deviations <15 %), sensitivity (limits of quantification <2.1 ng/g d.w, except for cannabinoids), and matrix effects (ionization suppression <40 %). The method was applied to the analysis of 144 sediments collected in four Spanish river basins. Cocaine, methadone, and its metabolite 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (EDDP) were the most ubiquitous compounds (detection frequencies>36 %), whereas cannabinol, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and methadone were the most abundant compounds (up to 44, 37, and 33 ng/g d.w, respectively). The presence of EDDP, THC, and methadone in the sediments of 28 locations may pose a risk to sediment-dwelling organisms. To the author`s knowledge, this is the most extensive study conducted so far on the occurrence of drugs of abuse in sediments, and the first time that sediment-water distribution coefficients for EDDP, methadone, MDMA, and diazepam are reported from field observations.