Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, INDIA

Speech Title: Seasonal variation and risk assessment of PPCPs in water bodies using offline solid-phase extraction coupled with reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract: The present study establishes an annual baseline of the persistence, seasonal quantification and risk assessment for five fingerprint PPCPs namely ciprofloxacin, acetaminophen, caffeine, benzophenone and irgasan in raw and treated sewage as well as surface water bodies (lakes) in Nagpur, India. The method development and validation of targeted PPCPs were carried out using HPLC-PDA method coupled with offline solid phase extraction (SPE). The method was developed using a reversed-phase C18 column and the mobile phase composition was 1 % acetic acid and methanol (20:80 v/v). All the analytes were separated and detected within 15 min under isocratic conditions, at a flow rate of 1 mL min⁻¹.Developed analytical method was validated according to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) norms which demonstrated the reproducibility, specificity and sensitivity of the developed method. The linearity of the calibration curves were obtained with correlation coefficients 0.98–0.99. The simultaneous investigation of five representative PPCPs in the defined study area were found in the concentration range of 1–174 μg L⁻¹ in the surface water bodies and 11-373 μg L⁻¹ in the sewage. The seasonal trends indicated higher concentrations of PPCPs in summer season and lowest in the rainy season. Ecotoxicological risk assessment (ERA) was done to appraise the degree of toxicity of the targeted compounds in terms of Hazard quotient (HQ). HQ values were found to be < 1 indicating no adverse effect on the targeted organism (except ciprofloxacin in sewage).