News and Events

SWES Department Seminar

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Next SWES Seminar – 23 November 2009

SWES Students Katherine Heckman and Marianyoly Ortiz

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Abstract: Emerging contaminants (EmCs) is broadly defined as a group of endocrine disrupting compounds, pharmaceuticals and personal care products that make their way into the environment.  Once in aqueous bodies such as wastewater effluents these EmCs may eventually be transported into fresh and groundwater sources where they pose a threat to wildlife and potentially to human health.  Given that these important water sources also contain dissolved organic matter (DOM), a ubiquitous heterogeneous mixture of organic molecules that can affect the detection, transport and bioavailabity of such contaminants.  The present study aims to elucidate in-situ chemical complexations between DOM (fresh and wastewater) and EmCs (carbamazepine, ibuprofen and bisphenol-A) at environmentally relevant conditions by two complementary techniques:  Quenching of DOM fluorescence by EmCs, and tandem mass spectrometry to assess recovery of EmCs in the presence of DOM.  Results suggest that although various populations of DOM molecules from both water sources are involved in the complexation of EmCs, the complexation interactions are weak as indicated by near 100% ca. recovery of EmCs by tandem mass spectrometry.