How to evaluate pollution, degradation and metabolisation of multi-families of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors in multiple compartments of the surface water media?

Evaluations like risks or effects assessments of the presence of various xenobiotics in the environment show a continuously growing interest since the past decades. To establish models for degradation of a family of pharmaceuticals and thus evaluate its impact on the environment, scientists need good analytical methods to reinforce databases. While literature focuses on single matrices or single family, this work aims to develop an integrative approach of the surface water media: water, sediments and biota. Those methods are combined to relatively simple and short time-consuming extraction techniques investigated for various matrices for the 20 various pharmaceuticals and 28 Endocrine Disruptor. NanoLC-MS/MS method has already been applied to a benthic model exposed for eco-toxicological study. All presented LC-MS/MS, automated online-SPE-LC-MS/MS and nanoLC-MS/MS methods have been validated following ICH recommendations. They allow rapid quantification of multiple pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors at environmental levels and have been for the study of real ecosystems in French rivers. In parallel thanks to passive samplers calibrated in the laboratory and validated in situ with PRCs, real time weighted average concentration can be determined in surface water. Exposing the benthic model to those concentrations should allow not only the quantification of accumulated and metabolised compounds in biota but also degradation products and coefficient partitioning between water and sediments. Those studies even could correlate fate to effects observed on benthic models. Further investigations with TOF spectrometers should allow non-targeted analysis for identification of new by-products, degradation products or metabolites. Although this analytical challenge is needed for risk and effects assessments on environment and populations, it is really time-consuming for the analyst. Prioritisation of substances is crucial to select representative pollutants to help scientists building models. This project opens the discussion for assessments of multi-families of various ubiquitous pollutants with a relatively large panel of analysis for different matrices of the same water surface media.