Assessment of Highly Polar Chemicals in Dutch and Flemish Drinking Water and Its Sources: Presence and Potential Risks

Abstract

Highly polar chemicals are mobile in an aqueous environment. Analytical methods for these compounds in water are lacking. A combined target/nontarget screening method based on hydrophilic interaction LC coupled to high-resolution MS was developed. Thirty-two highly polar chemicals (including melem and melam) can thus be quantitatively measured in surface water and drinking water, and the MS data can be screened for unknown compounds. This is the first time a method for the determination of melem and melam in water has been described. The method is complementary to existing target and nontarget methods for less polar substances and can be applied for (drinking) water quality assessment. In a screening study in The Netherlands and Flanders, 12 of the 32 compounds were encountered in groundwater, surface water, and drinking water at levels between 0.01 and 4.2 μg/L. Concentrations in drinking water were compared with (provisional) guideline values to assess whether these may pose a concern for human health. In one drinking water sample, the concentration of dichloroacetic acid exceeded the provisional guideline value, indicating that health effects cannot be excluded on the basis of lifetime exposure. For most chemicals, reliable drinking water guideline values could not be derived due to the limited available of toxicity data.

Persistent and mobile organic chemicals in water resources: occurrence and removal options for water utilities

“…Unfortunately, information on which German surface waters were analyzed is also lacking, so that a direct comparison with the concentrations detected herein is not possible. Kolkman et al (2021) also detected DPG in 11 of 24 surface water, groundwater, and drinking water samples from the Netherlands and Belgium. However, only qualitative statements on DPG were made in the study and no concentrations were given.…”

Coupling Suspect and Nontarget Screening with Mass Balance Modeling to Characterize Organic Micropollutants in the Onondaga Lake–Three Rivers System

“…Triisopropanolamine was first detected at 6–21 ng/L in wastewater effluents, 10 but its occurrence in riverine and estuarine waters has also been highlighted in recent nontarget screening studies. 84 , 85 Other nontarget OMPs tentatively identified at level 3 ( Figure S16 ) were likely industrial additives and synthetic cathinones following the inspection of the top-ranked structures in mzCloud , but authentic reference standards are required for further confirmation of these compounds. Overall, nontarget screening based on the measure of vertical profile similarity during thermal stratification in Onondaga Lake complemented suspect screening and enabled the discovery of additional OMPs that were ubiquitously present in the Onondaga Lake–Three Rivers system.…”

Occurrence, Distribution, and Environmental Behavior of Persistent, Mobile, and Toxic (PMT) and Very Persistent and Very Mobile (vPvM) Substances in the Sources of German Drinking Water

“…(1) Presence on the SIN List or being a candidate for the SIN list (11 substances) (2) Presence of a triazine moiety (4 substances) due to the recent concern of melamine, cyanuric acid, and potentially other triazines in water 13,14 (3) Manual selection from the PMT/vPvM substances registered under REACH list (21 substances), based on: a. interest of researchers (e.g., lack of monitoring data, more monitoring data desired, interest in small chloroalkanes) b. practical considerations (e.g., availability of reference standards) The final list of PMT/vPvM substances that were analyzed for and their abbreviations can be found in Table S1 in the Supporting Information (SI).…”

“…Second, compounds that were deemed not feasible to measure using the selected HILIC-MS/MS, RPLC-MS/MS, and GC-MS/MS methods, or because reference standards were not available, were also excluded. Following this, 34 substances were prioritized for analysis based on: Presence on the SIN List or being a candidate for the SIN list (11 substances) Presence of a triazine moiety (4 substances) due to the recent concern of melamine, cyanuric acid, and potentially other triazines in water , Manual selection from the PMT/vPvM substances registered under REACH list (21 substances), based on: interest of researchers (e.g., lack of monitoring data, more monitoring data desired, interest in small chloroalkanes) practical considerations (e.g., availability of reference standards) …”

“…Presence of a triazine moiety (4 substances) due to the recent concern of melamine, cyanuric acid, and potentially other triazines in water , …”