DETERMINATION OF SOME COMMONLY USED ANTIBIOTIC RESIDUES IN HOSPITAL EFFLUENTS OF KASHMIR VALLEY

Large quantities of antibiotics are being used in hospitals for the treatment of human diseases and they are the primary sites of administering antibiotics into the environment. The study aimed to survey a total of five commonly used antibiotics based on SPE- LC-MS-MS technology for the out coming effluent at four hospitals of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Samples were taken from the main sewers of the hospital where the effluent meets the natural environment. A total of 12 samples (3 from each hospital) and were mixed together to form only 4 composite samples for identifying the presence of antibiotic residues and the samples were named as SKIMS, SMHS, LD AND JLNM. Due to continuous release of the antibiotics from hospitals into the environment, the main aim of the study was to determine the presence of antibiotics in the hospital effluent by using solid-phase extraction (SPE) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) technique. The results indicated that 95% of the samples contained residues of at least one of the investigated antibiotics. The results showed that amikacin was found in all the four samples, whereas, levofloxacin, ceftriaxone and azithromycin were observed in three, two and two samples, respectively. Pollution of water bodies by antibiotic utilization in hospitals has deleterious consequences on human health and environment.