Takashi Azuma* and Yoshiki Mino
Recently, new pollution problems due to the presence of pharmaceuticals in the water environment have been reported, and research aimed at understanding the status of this pollution and assessing and dealing with the associated environmental risks is receiving worldwide attention. Because their concentrations in the water environment are quite low (roughly in the range from ng/L to μg/L), a method of highly sensitive and highly selective multicomponent simultaneous analysis is indispensable for detecting and quantifying these products. Here, I summarize the findings of previous research and case study analyses to date of an analytical method that combines solid phase extraction (SPE) and liquid chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS); this is a versatile and reliable method of detecting and quantifying pharmaceutical pollutants in river water and wastewater samples. I also discuss the prospects for environmental analysis techniques.
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