Pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in surface water and wild freshwater invertebrates in Luxembourg

Pharmaceutical as well as illicit drugs are massively consumed worldwide and many studies have established that their release, respectively the release of their metabolites, into the environment may have considerable negative effects on the wildlife and general ecosystems functioning. This study deals with the detection and the determination of contamination levels of some commonly used pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in surface water and in the two freshwater invertebrates Gammarus pulex and Asellus aquaticus collected in Luxembourg. A method, based on liquid chromatography coupled to a quadrupole time-of flight mass spectrometer (LC-QToF-MS), was developed to investigate eight compounds (alprazolam, bisoprolol, carbamazepine, citalopram, lidocaine, O-desmethyltramadol, MDMA and benzoylecgonine, the major cocaine metabolite). Except for alprazolam all compounds were detected at least once in the surface water. Three of these compounds were detected in biota samples with concentrations ranging from < LOQ to 6.3 ng/g of dry weight. The bioaccumulation (BAF) factors were calculated for two compounds. The results draw attention to the importance of monitoring drugs in freshwater biota to better assess the effects of drugs on non-target organisms.