Our publication “Wide-scope target and suspect screening of emerging contaminants in sewage sludge from Nigerian WWTPs by UPLC-qToF-MS” by Varvara Nikolopoulou, Akinranti Ajibola, Reza Aalizadeh and Nikolaos S. Thomaidis, is available in the journal Science of The Total Environment.
There is currently a paucity of scientific data in Africa on the analysis and occurrence of emerging contaminants in sewage sludge. In this work, the occurrence of European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive priority substances and wide-range emerging contaminants were investigated and discussed comprehensively in the sewage sludge samples from three different wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Lagos, Nigeria. The identification strategy was implemented by target and suspect screening in liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry. From 250 detected compounds, 182 compounds were quantified, and 78 compounds significantly show high environmental risk score (calculated from provisional no-effect concentrations values (PNEC) as well as their environmental quality data (EQs)). This work presents the first comprehensive and wide-scope screening of a large number of emerging contaminants in sewage sludge from Nigerian WWTPs.