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Aquatic systems, particularly in rural areas, may becontaminated by antimicrobials from wastewatertreatment effluent or diffuse pollution. Recent investigationsof pharmaceutical contaminants in surfacewaters in the United States and Europe revealed thepresence of antimicrobials such as synthetic and naturallyderived antibiotics used in human and veterinarymedicine. The fate of these antimicrobials in theaquatic environment, along with the rising trend ofantibacterial resistance in aquatic and soil microorganisms,is poorly understood.This research was designed to investigate the removalof antimicrobials in multistage filtration, provide informationfor rural communities affected by antimicrobialsurface water pollution, identify topics for futureresearch, and aid environmental and human health riskassessments. The study examined schmutzdecke sorptionbehavior and removal efficiencies in a pilot roughing andslow sand filter fed 0.2 mg/L of five compounds fromfour classes of antimicrobials. Aqueous antimicrobialconcentrations were analyzed by high-performance liquidchromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. Includes 39 references, tables, figures.

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Edition: Vol. 97 - No. 12 Published: 12/01/2005 Number of Pages: 9File Size: 1 file , 320 KB