Pan-European survey on the occurrence of selected polar organic persistent pollutants in ground water Robert Loos a, *, Giovanni Locoro a , Sara Comero a , Serafino Contini a,1 , David Schwesig b , Friedrich Werres b , Peter Balsaa b , Oliver Gans c , Stefan Weiss c , Ludek Blaha d , Monica Bolchi e , Bernd Manfred Gawlik a a European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Via Enrico Fermi, 21020 Ispra, Italy b IWW Water Centre, Moritzstr. 26, 45476 Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany c Umweltbundesamt GmbH, Spittelauer La ¨nde 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria d Masaryk University, RECETOX, Kamenice 3, CZ 62500 Brno, Czech Republic e Perkin Elmer Italia S.p.A., Via Tiepolo, 24, I 20052 Monza (MI), Italy article info Article history: Received 9 February 2010 Received in revised form 17 May 2010 Accepted 22 May 2010 Available online 1 June 2010 Keywords: Ground water Pan-European monitoring Non-probabilistic sampling Polar organic contaminants SPE-LC-MS 2 abstract This study provides the first pan-European reconnaissance of the occurrence of polar organic persistent pollutants in European ground water. In total, 164 individual ground-water samples from 23 European Countries were collected and analysed (among others) for 59 selected organic compounds, comprising pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, pesticides (and their transformation products), perfluorinated acids (PFAs), benzotriazoles, hormones, alkylphe- nolics (endocrine disrupters), Caffeine, Diethyltoluamide (DEET), and Triclosan. The most relevant compounds in terms of frequency of detection and maximum concentrations detected were DEET (84%; 454 ng/L), Caffeine (83%; 189 ng/L), PFOA (66%; 39 ng/L), Atrazine (56%; 253 ng/L), Desethylatrazine (55%; 487 ng/L), 1H-Benzotriazole (53%; 1032 ng/L), Meth- ylbenzotriazole (52%; 516 ng/L), Desethylterbutylazine (49%; 266 ng/L), PFOS (48%, 135 ng/L), Simazine (43%; 127 ng/L), Carbamazepine (42%; 390 ng/L), nonylphenoxy acetic acid (NPE 1 C) (42%; 11 mg/L), Bisphenol A (40%; 2.3 mg/L), PFHxS (35%; 19 ng/L), Terbutylazine (34%; 716 ng/L), Bentazone (32%; 11 mg/L), Propazine (32%; 25 ng/L), PFHpA (30%; 21 ng/L), 2,4-Dinitrophenol (29%; 122 ng/L), Diuron (29%; 279 ng/L), and Sulfamethoxazole (24%; 38 ng/L). The chemicals which were detected most frequently above the European ground water quality standard for pesticides of 0.1 mg/L were Chloridazon-desphenyl (26 samples), NPE 1 C (20), Bisphenol A (12), Benzotriazole (8), N,N 0 -Dimethylsulfamid (DMS) (8), Desethylatrazine (6), Nonylphenol (6), Chloridazon-methyldesphenyl (6), Methylbenzotriazole (5), Carbamazepine (4), and Benta- zone (4). However, only 1.7% of all single analytical measurements (in total e 8000) were above this threshold value of 0.1 mg/L; 7.3% were > than 10 ng/L. ª 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The growing scarcity of water resources is one of the most critical environmental problems facing us in many regions of the world. Ground water is the most sensitive and the largest body of freshwater in the European Union (EU) and, in particular, also a main source of public drinking water supplies in many regions. The EU Ground water Directive * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ39 0332 786407; fax: þ39 0332 786351. E-mail address: robert.loos@jrc.ec.europa.eu (R. Loos). 1 In remembrance of Serafino Contino. Available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/watres water research 44 (2010) 4115 e4126 0043-1354/$ e see front matter ª 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2010.05.032