Pharmaceutical compounds in urban drinking waters of Ecuador

Abstract

Emerging contaminants (ECs) are substances with widely diverse chemical structures that may pose a risk to the environment and human beings. The limited scope of water treatment facilities, particularly in low and middle income countries, allows ECs to be continuously introduced to the environment and become part of the cycle again for potabilization. In this work, we study for the first time the presence of these compounds in the drinking water of five Ecuadorian cities