**Author details**

the skin and later washed off into drains which are connected to wastewater treatment plants. From wastewater treatment plants, the water is discharged into rivers [3]. This has resulted in the occurrence of UV-filters in surface waters [22], sediments [38, 39], drinking water and

**Table 6.** Analysis of influent and effluent over from Daspoort (Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa) wastewater treatment

September 155.3 ± 2.4 157.2 ± 2.2 171.3 ± 3.1 172.2 ± 2.8 October 327.3 ± 4.3 328.9 ± 4.0 337.3 ± 3.6 337.6 ± 3.6

September 57.9 ± 1.3 59.0 ± 1.5 23.6 ± 0.9 24.2 ± 0.8 October 134.5 ± 1.5 135.1 ± 1.2 45.3 ± 0.5 46.0 ± 0.2

SPE/UV SPE/HPLC SPE/UV SPE/HPLC

**Found (μg/L) % R Found (μg/L) % R**

50 135.3 ± 2.3 99.3 119.7 ± 3.5 100.7 100 186.3 ± 2.5 100.6 169.4 ± 4.2 100.0

50 56.7 ± 1.2 99.8 69.6 ± 1.3 99.7 100 106.9 ± 3.1 100.0 119.1 ± 2.7 99.3

**Table 5.** Analysis of wastewater samples (influent and effluent) spiked and unspiked from Daspoort (Pretoria, Gauteng,

**Samples Months Benzophenone Sulisobenzone**

**Sample Added (μg/L) Benzophenone Sulisobenzone**

Influent 1 0 85.8 ± 1.3 69.4 ± 1.2

54 Emerging Pollutants - Some Strategies for the Quality Preservation of Our Environment

Effluent 1 0 6.83 ± 0.92 19.8 ± 0.9

Influent August 78.6 ± 1.2 79.4 ± 1.5 56.3 ± 2.1 58.0 ± 1.8

Effluent August 18.5 ± 0.7 19.5 ± 0.5 14.5 ± 0.7 15.1 ± 0.5

The presence of UV-filter in different water bodies does not only have an effect in humans as suspected endocrine disrupters [18]. Their effects spans into aquatic life, as reported by [3], benzophenone can cause cell membrane impairments in fresh water protozoa. Benzophenone was also found in other fresh water species in percentages ranging from 50 to 80% by [41].

The described method was applied in the analysis of real water samples collected over a period of three months as expressed in **Table 6**. The influent and effluent samples were collected over two seasons, namely winter (one month) and spring (two months). From **Table 6**, it was observed that between the three months, October showed the highest concentrations for both the influent and effluent. This was because it was significantly warmer during spring when compared to August. It is also worthy to note that the concentrations of benzophenone were higher than those of sulisobenzone. This could be the consequence of the degradation of sulisobenzone during the water treatment process. This is possible because benzophenone

even fish [4, 12, 40].

plant a period of 3 months.

South Africa) wastewater treatment plant.

Anele Mpupa and Philiswa N. Nomngongo\*

\*Address all correspondence to: pnnomngongo@uj.ac.za

Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
