Wide-scope screening of pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs and their metabolites in the Amazon River

Only a limited number of households in the Amazon are served by sewage collection or treatment facilities, suggesting that there might be significant emission pharmaceuticals and other wastewater contaminants into freshwater ecosystems. In this work, we performed wide-scope screening to assess occurrence pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs their metabolites ecosystems Brazilian Amazon. Our study included 40 samples taken along River, three its major tributaries, small tributaries crossing four important urban areas (Manaus, Santarém, Macapá, Belém). More than 900 compounds were investigated making use target suspect approaches, based on liquid chromatography coupled high-resolution mass spectrometry with ion mobility separation. Empirical collision-cross section (CCS) values used help confirm identifications screening, while approach CCS predicted using Artificial Neural Networks increase confidence tentative identification. way, 51 identified. The highest prevalence was found streams Manaus, Macapá Belém, some containing up 30 - compounds, Santarém showed lower (8 11), main course River contained between 1 7 compounds. Most identified impact belonged analgesics antihypertensive categories, followed stimulants antibiotics. Compounds such as caffeine, cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine, cotinine (the nicotine), also detected relatively low anthropogenic total prevalence. This supports need improve sanitation system development follow-up studies aimed at quantifying exposure levels risks for Amazonian biodiversity.