Occurrence, source estimation and risk assessment of pharmaceuticals in the Chaobai River characterized by adjacent land use

This study investigated the occurrence of 27 pharmaceuticals with diverse physicochemical properties in a year-long monitoring campaign in the Chaobai River, China. The correlation between the distribution of pharmaceuticals in the river and the adjacent sources was elucidated. The results indicate that the agriculture area was the most polluted area with a median summed pharmaceutical concentration of 225.3 ng L-1, followed by the urban area and the mountain area with the corresponding values of 136.9 and 29.9 ng L-1, respectively. In terms of individual compounds, 22 out of 27 compounds were detected with concentrations ranging from