Sulphonamide residues in Italian surface and drinking waters: A small scale reconnaissance

The occurrence of antibiotics in the aquatic environment is an important emerging issue due to potential adverse effect of these compounds on ecosystem and human health. For a correct environmental risk assessment there is a need for appropriate analytical methods for monitoring antibiotic residues in a variety of water matrices. This paper describes a method for the determination of eleven sulphonamide compounds in surface and drinking waters using solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Recoveries of the analytes in both surface and drinking water matrices at different fortification levels, always exceed 87%; the limits of quantification in surface water samples are between 0.005 and 0.021 mu g L-1 depending on the compound, and the interday method precision is less than 12%. Matrix effects were evaluated in drinking and surface water samples. The method has been applied to a small scale reconnaissance of river, lake, mineral and municipal water samples; results indicate the occurrence of sulphonamides in some surface and mineral waters analyzed.