Occurrence and risk assessment of pharmaceutical and personal care product pollution in Urban Aquatic Ecosystems of South India

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are emerging pollutants since they persist for for an extended period and can harm the environment. This study assessed the prevalence, spatial distribution, and ecological risk of triclosan, naproxen, diclofenac, norfloxacin, and caffeine in surface and groundwater at 30 locations in Bengaluru and Mysuru, India. We used SPE-HPLC to look at the compounds and the risk quotient method to look at the ecological risk across different aquatic trophic levels. All target PPCPs were detected across the study area. Ecological risk assessment showed that the highest risk quotient values for norfloxacin, diclofenac, naproxen, triclosan, and caffeine were about 2, 13, 0.7, 8, and 16, respectively. Caffeine, diclofenac, and triclosan consistently exceeded over the high-risk threshold (RQ > 1), while norfloxacin was exhibited moderate risk and naproxen was in the low to middle of the risk range. The results show that urban aquatic ecosystems in southern India indicate substantial pharmaceutical contamination. This is primarily due to untreated sewage from households, hospital waste, and poor wastewater management. The high ecological risks linked to multiple compounds underscore the necessity for ongoing monitoring, enhanced wastewater treatment technologies, and risk-based management strategies to mitigate pharmaceuticals and personal care products pollution and safeguard aquatic ecosystems and public health.