Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry Volume 2013, Article ID 210653, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/210653 Research Article Simultaneous Determination of Hormonal Residues in Treated Waters Using Ultrahigh Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry Rayco Guedes-Alonso, Zoraida Sosa-Ferrera, and José Juan Santana-Rodríguez Departamento de Qu´ ımica, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain Correspondence should be addressed to Jos´ e Juan Santana-Rodr´ ıguez; jsantana@dqui.ulpgc.es Received 28 December 2012; Accepted 7 February 2013 Academic Editor: Fei Qi Copyright © 2013 Rayco Guedes-Alonso et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In the last years, hormone consumption has increased exponentially. Because of that, hormone compounds are considered emerging pollutants since several studies have determinted their presence in water inluents and eluents of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In this study, a quantitative method for the simultaneous determination of oestrogens (estrone, 17-estradiol, estriol, 17-ethinylestradiol, and diethylstilbestrol), androgens (testosterone), and progestogens (norgestrel and megestrol acetate) has been developed to determine these compounds in wastewater samples. Due to the very low concentrations of target compounds in the environment, a solid phase extraction procedure has been optimized and developed to extract and preconcentrate the analytes. Determination and quantiication were performed by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). he method developed presents satisfactory limits of detection (between 0.15 and 9.35 ng⋅L −1 ), good recoveries (between 73 and 90% for the most of compounds), and low relative standard deviations (under 8.4%). Samples from inluents and eluents of two wastewater treatment plants of Gran Canaria (Spain) were analyzed using the proposed method, inding several hormones with concentrations ranged from 5 to 300 ng⋅L −1 . 1. Introduction In general, it is supposed that more than 100,000 diferent chemical compounds can be introduced in the Environment, many of them in very small quantity. However, a lot of these compounds are not included as pollutants in the legislation. Although these compounds, named emerging pollutants, are not regulated as pollutants, they probably will be in the future because of their potential negative efect in the ecosystem. For 20 years, many articles have reported the presence of these “new compounds” in wastewater [1, 2]. he emerging pollutant origin is mainly anthropogenic, considering that the majority of these compounds are bio- logically active substances that are synthesized to use them in agriculture, industry, and medicine. he main source of these emerging pollutants is the residual urban waters and the wastewater treatment plants eluents because many of these WWTPs are not designed or optimized to treat this kind of compounds [3]. Hormones are one of the most potent endocrine disrupt- ing compounds as well as are considered also as emerging pollutants. Hormones can be diferentiated in oestrogens, androgens, and progestogens. Some of them have limits in their use, but not a speciic legislation [4]. he main characteristic of these pollutants is that it is not necessary to remain in the environment to cause negative efects, in view of the fact that their constant introduction in it ofsets their removal or degradation [5]. he steroid hormones help controlling the metabolism, inlammations, immunological functions, water and salt bal- ance, sexual development, and the capacity of withstanding illnesses [6]. he term steroid can be used for natural hormones produced by the body as well as for artiicially produced medicines that increase the natural steroid efect.