Occurrence of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in marine sediments in the Todos os Santos Bay and the north coast of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Purpose The Todos os Santos Bay is the largest bay in Brazil and receives drainage from various watersheds. For more than 450 years, it was the main destination for the domestic and hospital sewage from the city of Salvador, Bahia. With the growing concern regarding the presence of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment, an investigation was undertaken to determine the presence and levels of some commonly used drugs (i.e., atenolol, caffeine, carbamazepine, diazepam, diclofenac, erythromycin, ibuprofen) and personal care products (i.e., galaxolide, tonalide), using sedi-ments as an indicator of their presence in the water column. Material and methods Surficial sediment samples from 17 stations located in the intertidal zone of the Todos os Santos Bay and infralittoral zone along the north coast of Salvador were tested for the presence of some PPCPs using LC-MS/MS (for drugs) and GC-MS/MS (for fragrances). Results and discussion The PPCPs examined were present in all sediment samples at levels of parts per billion of dry sediment. The highest concentrations were found for the fragrances galaxolide (52.5 ng g(-1)) and tonalide (27.9 ng g(-1)), followed by caffeine (23.4 ng g(-1)) and pharmaceuticals ibuprofen (14.3 ng g(-1)), atenolol (9.84 ng g(-1)), carbamazepine (4.81 ng g(-1)), erythromycin (2.29 ng g(-1)), diclofenac (1.06 ng g(-1)), and diazepam (0.71 ng g(-1)). Conclusions Pharmaceuticals were found to be ubiquitous in the sediments of the study areas. The texture of the sediment was an important factor in PPCPs fixation and deposition. The concentrations of all PPCPs had statistically significant positive correlations with the percentage of clay in the sediments.