Contaminants of emerging concern in drinking water: Quality assessment by combining chemical and biological analysis

Drinking water quality is a priority issue of the environmental policy agenda, however regulation on Contami-nants of Emerging Concern (CECs) is limited. A proposal to revise the Drinking Water Directive has recentlybeen approved (EU Council 2020), which updates the quality standards and introduces the watch list mecha-nism, including for thefirst time endocrine disruptors and pharmaceuticals. The purpose of this study was toevaluate the occurrence of selected CECs in surface water at the entrance of drinking water treatment plants(DWTPs) and in treated water, ready for distribution in the network. Samples were collected at three differentDWTPs (Italy) and CECs assessed by LC-MS/MS were the following: bisphenol A (BPA), nonylphenol (NP),octylphenol, perfluorooctanesulfonic and perfluorooctanoic acids (PFOS and PFOA), atenolol, caffeine (CFF), car-bamazepine (CBZ), estrone, 17-β-estradiol, 17-α-ethinyl estradiol, diclofenac, and ibuprofen. In addition, biolog-ical analyses were performed to ascertain cumulative estrogenic and/or genotoxic potential of the samples. CFF,NP, PFOA, BPA, and CBZ were the most frequently detected contaminants, found in treated water in the followingranges: CFF 12.47–66.33 ng/L, NP 7.90–53.62 ng/L, PFO