Occurrence of Emerging Micropollutants in Water Systems in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and North West Provinces, South Africa.

Elijah Wanda,Hlengilizwe Nyoni,Titus Msagati,Bhekie Mamba

doi:10.3390/ijerph14010079

Elijah Wanda, Hlengilizwe Nyoni + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14010079

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Abstract

The ubiquitous occurrence of emerging micropollutants (EMPs) in water is an issue of growing environmental-health concern worldwide. However, there remains a paucity of data regarding their levels and occurrence in water. This study determined the occurrence of EMPs namely: carbamazepine (CBZ), galaxolide (HHCB), caffeine (CAF), tonalide (AHTN), 4-nonylphenol (NP), and bisphenol A (BPA) in water from Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and North West provinces, South Africa using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to high resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC-HRTOFMS). Kruskal-Wallis test and ANOVA were performed to determine temporal variations in occurrence of the EMPs. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Surfer Golden Graphics software for surface mapping were used to determine spatial variations in levels and occurrence of the EMPs. The mean levels ranged from 11.22 ± 18.8 ng/L for CAF to 158.49 ± 662 ng/L for HHCB. There was no evidence of statistically significant temporal variations in occurrence of EMPs in water. Nevertheless, their levels and occurrence vary spatially and are a function of two principal components (PCs, PC1 and PC2) which controlled 89.99% of the variance. BPA was the most widely distributed EMP, which was present in 62% of the water samples. The detected EMPs pose ecotoxicological risks in water samples, especially those from Mpumalanga province.

Highlights

Emerging micropollutants (EMPs) are ubiquitous in aquatic environments and are a matter of growing concern worldwide [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
From the results (Table 2), it was observed that the mean percent recovery (n = 3) of all the analytes was higher for the samples with an analyte concentration of 10 μg/L than that of samples containing the initial analyte concentration of 5 μg/L
The EMPs, Bisphenol A (BPA), NP, CAF, HHCB, AHTN, and CBZ were successfully extracted and preThe EMPs, BPA, NP, CAF, HHCB, AHTN, and CBZ were successfully extracted and concentrated using autotrace-solid phase extraction (SPE) prior to determination using the GCxGC-HRTOFMS system in pre-concentrated using autotrace-SPE prior to determination using the GCxGC-HRTOFMS system in water samples collected from Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and North West provinces, South Africa at water samples collected from Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and North West provinces, South Africa at better better S/N ratios as well as lower limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ)

Summary

Introduction

Emerging micropollutants (EMPs) are ubiquitous in aquatic environments and are a matter of growing concern worldwide [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Compared to other contaminants of anthropogenic origin, the EMPs have largely been outside the scope of monitoring and regulation worldwide, and there is paucity of data on their levels, occurrence, and fate in water [1,2,4,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. Public Health 2017, 14, 79; doi:10.3390/ijerph14010079 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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