Pharmaceuticals and personal care products contamination in the rivers of Chennai city during the COVID-19 pandemic

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) monitoring in surface water is crucial to address the escalating threat of antimicrobial resistance and safeguard public health. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence of 21 different PPCPs, including wastewater chemical markers, antibiotics, and parabens in the surface water of Chennai city using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography—Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) analysis. It is noteworthy that chemical markers viz., carbamazepine (CBZ) and caffeine (CAF) were detected in all the sites and contributed to more than 95% of the total PPCPs load indicating a significant intrusion of wastewater. Among the antibiotics, fluoroquinolones were dominant in this study. Interestingly, a significant and strong correlation was seen between fluoroquinolones, CBZ and CAF (R 2 = 0.880–0.928, p 1 for ciprofloxacin, indicating a significant public health concern. The ecotoxicological risk assessment of PPCPs showed no risk to any organisms, except for triclosan, which posed a risk to fish and daphnids at one site near an open drain in Buckingham canal. Graphical abstract