{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86458"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86458","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Assessing the Global Occurrence, Fate, and Ecotoxicological Effects of Contaminants of Emerging Concern in the Environment Using Target Analysis and Suspect Screening","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Angeles, Luisa; 0000-0002-5326-5710"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Aga, Diana","Chemistry"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-02-21T17:22:37Z","date_published":"2025-02-21T17:22:37Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:32Z","subjects":["analytical chemistry","environmental studies"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86458","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Aga, Diana","Chemistry"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Angeles, Luisa; 0000-0002-5326-5710"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-02-21T17:22:37Z","2020"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["analytical chemistry","environmental studies"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86458"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment from discharges of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and from the land application of antibiotic-laden manure from animal agriculture is a critical global issue because these residues have been associated with the increased emergence of antibiotic resistance in the environment. In addition, pharmaceutical residues may have adverse ecotoxicological effects in exposed aquatic organisms. This dissertation involves the optimization of different methods and workflows using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to investigate the occurrence and fate of pharmaceutical residues in the environment, which are considered contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). Chapter 1 discusses an introduction on the sources of pharmaceuticals and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in the environment. The chapter also provides information on sample preparation and instrumentation techniques used for the analysis of CECs, as well as the scope of all the succeeding chapters in this dissertation. Chapter 2 presents the development of the ion ratios between quantifying and qualifying ions as a quality assurance criterion in the analysis of pharmaceutical residues in wastewater and surface water. Thirty pharmaceuticals were investigated and it was found that ion ratio variabilities increase at lower concentration and in matrices that are more complex. The variations of ion ratios at different concentrations should be considered because if only one tolerance limit is applied across all concentrations, it is highly likely that false negative results will occur at low concentrations, especially at around 1.56 to 12.5 ppb. The ion ratio tolerance range was optimized to be 40% for wastewater influent samples and 30% for wastewater effluent and surface water samples. A tolerance range of 80% was set for tetracyclines and quinolones that showed higher variations compared to other analytes studied. Chapter 3 shows the application of a robust targeted analytical method for the analysis of multiple classes of pharmaceuticals in six countries around the world. Results showed that pharmaceutical concentrations varied in the wastewater and surface water samples from Hong Kong, India, Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S. Ciprofloxacin and clarithromycin were the antimicrobials with the highest concentrations in all of the countries. Hong Kong showed the highest total antimicrobial concentrations that included macrolides, quinolones, and sulfonamides with concentrations reaching 60,000 μg/L levels in the influent. Antidepressants were frequently detected in Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S. Chapter 4 investigates the removal efficiencies for antimicrobials, antidepressants, and other pharmaceuticals of seven WWTPs that employ varying treatment technologies. The concentrations of the pharmaceuticals were measured by LC-MS at multiple points during the course of treatment. Additionally, the ecotoxicological effects of the WWTP effluents were also evaluated based on their behavioral effects in exposed larval zebrafish. It was found that biological treatment process provided negative to low removal (<50%), while activated carbon and ozonation provided high removal (>95% overall removal). Notably, the final effluents of the seven WWTPs in this study did not show any significant behavioral alterations in zebrafish. In Chapter 5, suspect screening using LC with high resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS) was used as an approach to expand the detection coverage of CECs in wastewater and surface water samples. Current workflows for suspect screening suffer from high frequency of false positives or lack of confidence in the true identity of the compounds detected. An optimized workflow was developed to determine the occurrence of CECs in wastewater and surface water samples from Hong Kong, India, Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S. Results revealed the presence of 61 contaminants that include pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. The workflow reported in this study provides an efficient approach and increased level of confidence in the identification of CECs using open access databases. In chapter 6, surface waters in both urban and rural sites in Bangladesh were collected and analyzed for the presence of antibiotic residues and other pharmaceuticals. Ciprofloxacin and clarithromycin were the antibiotics detected at the highest concentrations using a targeted LC-MS method. Using a suspect screening approach and retrospective analysis of the water samples with HR-MS, additional antibiotics clindamycin, lincomycin, linezolid, metronidazole, moxifloxacin, nalidixic acid, and sulfapyridine were detected. Prevalence of amoxicillin transformation products in surface waters was also confirmed. In addition, medicinal and agricultural antifungal compounds were frequently found in the samples.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Assessing the Global Occurrence, Fate, and Ecotoxicological Effects of Contaminants of Emerging Concern in the Environment Using Target Analysis and Suspect Screening"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Aga, Diana","Chemistry"],"dc:creator":["Angeles, Luisa; 0000-0002-5326-5710"],"dc:date":["2025-02-21T17:22:37Z","2020"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment from discharges of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and from the land application of antibiotic-laden manure from animal agriculture is a critical global issue because these residues have been associated with the increased emergence of antibiotic resistance in the environment. In addition, pharmaceutical residues may have adverse ecotoxicological effects in exposed aquatic organisms. This dissertation involves the optimization of different methods and workflows using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to investigate the occurrence and fate of pharmaceutical residues in the environment, which are considered contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). Chapter 1 discusses an introduction on the sources of pharmaceuticals and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in the environment. The chapter also provides information on sample preparation and instrumentation techniques used for the analysis of CECs, as well as the scope of all the succeeding chapters in this dissertation. Chapter 2 presents the development of the ion ratios between quantifying and qualifying ions as a quality assurance criterion in the analysis of pharmaceutical residues in wastewater and surface water. Thirty pharmaceuticals were investigated and it was found that ion ratio variabilities increase at lower concentration and in matrices that are more complex. The variations of ion ratios at different concentrations should be considered because if only one tolerance limit is applied across all concentrations, it is highly likely that false negative results will occur at low concentrations, especially at around 1.56 to 12.5 ppb. The ion ratio tolerance range was optimized to be 40% for wastewater influent samples and 30% for wastewater effluent and surface water samples. A tolerance range of 80% was set for tetracyclines and quinolones that showed higher variations compared to other analytes studied. Chapter 3 shows the application of a robust targeted analytical method for the analysis of multiple classes of pharmaceuticals in six countries around the world. Results showed that pharmaceutical concentrations varied in the wastewater and surface water samples from Hong Kong, India, Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S. Ciprofloxacin and clarithromycin were the antimicrobials with the highest concentrations in all of the countries. Hong Kong showed the highest total antimicrobial concentrations that included macrolides, quinolones, and sulfonamides with concentrations reaching 60,000 μg/L levels in the influent. Antidepressants were frequently detected in Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S. Chapter 4 investigates the removal efficiencies for antimicrobials, antidepressants, and other pharmaceuticals of seven WWTPs that employ varying treatment technologies. The concentrations of the pharmaceuticals were measured by LC-MS at multiple points during the course of treatment. Additionally, the ecotoxicological effects of the WWTP effluents were also evaluated based on their behavioral effects in exposed larval zebrafish. It was found that biological treatment process provided negative to low removal (<50%), while activated carbon and ozonation provided high removal (>95% overall removal). Notably, the final effluents of the seven WWTPs in this study did not show any significant behavioral alterations in zebrafish. In Chapter 5, suspect screening using LC with high resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS) was used as an approach to expand the detection coverage of CECs in wastewater and surface water samples. Current workflows for suspect screening suffer from high frequency of false positives or lack of confidence in the true identity of the compounds detected. An optimized workflow was developed to determine the occurrence of CECs in wastewater and surface water samples from Hong Kong, India, Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S. Results revealed the presence of 61 contaminants that include pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. The workflow reported in this study provides an efficient approach and increased level of confidence in the identification of CECs using open access databases. In chapter 6, surface waters in both urban and rural sites in Bangladesh were collected and analyzed for the presence of antibiotic residues and other pharmaceuticals. Ciprofloxacin and clarithromycin were the antibiotics detected at the highest concentrations using a targeted LC-MS method. Using a suspect screening approach and retrospective analysis of the water samples with HR-MS, additional antibiotics clindamycin, lincomycin, linezolid, metronidazole, moxifloxacin, nalidixic acid, and sulfapyridine were detected. Prevalence of amoxicillin transformation products in surface waters was also confirmed. In addition, medicinal and agricultural antifungal compounds were frequently found in the samples.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86458"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["analytical chemistry","environmental studies"],"dc:title":["Assessing the Global Occurrence, Fate, and Ecotoxicological Effects of Contaminants of Emerging Concern in the Environment Using Target Analysis and Suspect Screening"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:32Z"}