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26There is a growing concern about possible ecotoxicological importance of various classes 27 of emerging contaminants in wastewaters and receiving ambient waters. This paper 28 reports on a comprehensive reconnaissance of more than seventy individual wastewater 29 contaminants in the region of Western Balkan (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and 30 Serbia), including some prominent classes of emerging contaminants such as 31 pharmaceuticals and personal care products, surfactants and their degradation products, 32 plasticizers, pesticides, insect repellents, and flame retardants. All determinations were 33 carried out using a modern multiresidue analytical approach, based on the application of 34 gas chromatographic and liquid chromatographic techniques coupled to mass 35 spectrometric detection. The sampling strategy encompassed collection of primarily 36 municipal wastewaters but wastewater effluents from some industries were also included. 37The results confirmed a widespread occurrence of the emerging contaminants in 38 municipal wastewaters of the region with a great deal of similarities with the situation 39 found in the Western Europe and USA. The most prominent contaminant classes, 40 determined in municipal wastewaters, were those derived from aromatic surfactants, 41 including linear alkylbenzene sulphonate (LAS) and alkylphenol polyethoxylates 42 (APEO), with the concentrations in raw wastewater reaching into the mg/L range. All 43 other contaminants were present in much lower concentrations, rarely exceeding few 44 μg/L. The most abundant individual compounds belonged to several classes of 45 pharmaceuticals (antimicrobials, analgesics and antiinflammatories, -blockers and lipid 46 regulators) and personal care products (fragrances). Due to the rather poor wastewater 47 management practices in WB countries, with less than 5 % of all wastewaters being 48 biologically treated, most of the contaminants present in wastewaters reach ambient 49 waters and may represent a significant environmental concern. Moreover, the results 50 indicated that the conventional biological wastewater treatment using activated sludge is 51 relatively inefficient for the removal of some classes of emerging contaminants. 52 53

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