Occurrence of the artificial sweetener sucralose in coastal and marine waters of the United States

Abstract

The first concentration data for the artificial sweetener sucralose (Splenda ®) is presented for North American coastal and open ocean waters. Large volume water samples were collected and pre-concentrated using solid phase extraction followed by GC/MS analysis. The concentration of sucralose varied over several orders of magnitude in these environmental samples with the greatest abundance in a waste water treatment plant effluent (300 nM). The concentration decreased in receiving waters of the Cape Fear River Estuary, NC (CFRE) where surface water concentrations at the mouth of the estuary were 0.94 nM. Sucralose was also detected in the oligotrophic waters of the Gulf Stream (33 28.6 N −76 48.2 W) where it ranged in concentration from below detection limit to 0.17 nM. In the Northern and Middle Florida Keys values were similar to the CFRE with concentrations of 0.37 nM and 0.99 nM, respectively. The data presented here suggest the persistence and widespread distribution of sucralose in natural aquatic matrices with subsequent incorporation into a major oceanographic current, the Gulf Stream, where global distribution may take place.