Analysis and occurrence of personal care products in biota samples

Personal care products (PCPs) constitute a large group of emerging environmental pollutants, potentially hazardous compounds that have been receiving steadily growing attention over the last decade. Because of the lipophilic properties of these substances, it is expected that they can reach and accumulate in tissues of aquatic organisms in different trophic levels. Their continuous environmental input may lead to a high long-term concentration and promote continual but unnoticed adverse effects on aquatic and terrestrial organisms. This chapter summarizes the developed analytical procedures for the analysis of four important different families of PCPs: UV filters, synthetic musk fragrances, antimicrobials, and parabens. Sampling extraction and preparation, instrumental analysis, and method performance have been considered and discussed. The present work also summarizes the available data on the presence of these substances in biota samples, providing ranges of concentration for the different compounds in the species that have been evaluated in each study. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.