Article

Antidepressant Pharmaceuticals in Two U.S. Effluent-Impacted Streams: Occurrence and Fate in Water and Sediment, and Selective Uptake in Fish Neural Tissue

Department of Chemistry, The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio 44691, National Water Quality Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado 80225, U.S. Geological Survey, Iowa City, Iowa 52244, Aquatic Toxicology Laboratory, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota 56301, U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, Colorado 80303, U.S. Geological Survey, National Fish Health Research Laboratory, Kearneysville, West Virginia 25430, Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309
Environ. Sci. Technol., 2010, 44 (6), pp 1918–1925
DOI: 10.1021/es9022706
Publication Date (Web): February 1, 2010
Copyright © 2010 American Chemical Society
OpenURL UNIV OF NORTH TEXAS
* Corresponding author phone: (303) 236-3941; fax: (303) 236-3499; e-mail: efurlong@usgs.gov., †

Department of Chemistry, The College of Wooster.

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National Water Quality Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey.

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U.S. Geological Survey, Iowa City.

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Aquatic Toxicology Laboratory, St. Cloud State University.

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U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder.

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National Fish Health Research Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey.

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Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado.

Synopsis

Antidepressant pharmaceuticals were measured in water, sediment, and fish brain tissue collected from two wastewater-effluent-impacted streams; qualitatively different antidepressant profiles were observed in each matrix.

Abstract

Antidepressant pharmaceuticals are widely prescribed in the United States; release of municipal wastewater effluent is a primary route introducing them to aquatic environments, where little is known about their distribution and fate. Water, bed sediment, and brain tissue from native white suckers (Catostomus commersoni) were collected upstream and at points progressively downstream from outfalls discharging to two effluent-impacted streams, Boulder Creek (Colorado) and Fourmile Creek (Iowa). A liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method was used to quantify antidepressants, including fluoxetine, norfluoxetine (degradate), sertraline, norsertraline (degradate), paroxetine, citalopram, fluvoxamine, duloxetine, venlafaxine, and bupropion in all three sample matrices. Antidepressants were not present above the limit of quantitation in water samples upstream from the effluent outfalls but were present at points downstream at ng/L concentrations, even at the farthest downstream sampling site 8.4 km downstream from the outfall. The antidepressants with the highest measured concentrations in both streams were venlafaxine, bupropion, and citalopram and typically were observed at concentrations of at least an order of magnitude greater than the more commonly investigated antidepressants fluoxetine and sertraline. Concentrations of antidepressants in bed sediment were measured at ng/g levels; venlafaxine and fluoxetine were the predominant chemicals observed. Fluoxetine, sertraline, and their degradates were the principal antidepressants observed in fish brain tissue, typically at low ng/g concentrations. A qualitatively different antidepressant profile was observed in brain tissue compared to streamwater samples. This study documents that wastewater effluent can be a point source of antidepressants to stream ecosystems and that the qualitative composition of antidepressants in brain tissue from exposed fish differs substantially from the compositions observed in streamwater and sediment, suggesting selective uptake.

Supporting Information


Standards, reagents, and specific QA/QC measures used in this study, figures containing the chemical structures of the antidepressant pharmaceuticals, maps of Boulder Creek and Fourmile Creek watersheds; tables are provided that have additional antidepressant information (including the individual antidepressant concentrations observed in the white sucker brains collected from Boulder and Fourmile Creeks). This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

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Article Views: 3,762 Times
Received 27 July 2009
Date accepted 14 December 2009
Published online 1 February 2010
Published in print 15 March 2010
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