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Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 82 257 5325; fax: +81 82 257 5329.
E-mail address: sohta@hiroshima-u.ac.jp (S. Ohta).
available for risk assessment of pharmaceuticals in aquatic envi-
ronment [4,10,3].
However, it is important to consider a broad range of factors,
both biotic, such as biodegradation, and abiotic, such as sorption,
photodegradation and hydrolysis, that may affect the persistence,
partitioning andfate of environmental pharmaceuticals. Under lab-
oratory conditions, the concentrations of some pharmaceuticals
were decreased by sorption and biodegradation [30,33,21]. An
activated sludge system, which is one of the treatments used in
STPs, can remove various pharmaceuticals using biodegradation by
bacteria [13].
On the other hand, UV treatment is an efcient method for
disinfecting polluted water. UV irradiation inactivates bacteria by
damaging their DNA. Pharmaceuticals may also be removed as a
result of UVinduced photodegradation. However, it is important to
consider the nature of the photoproducts that may be formed.
Acetaminophen (AA) [paracetamol, para-acetylaminophenol]
(Fig. 1) is widely used as an analgesic and antipyretic drug all
over the world. It is ranked as one of the top 25 prescriptions in
the UK [14]. AA has been detected in discharges from hospitals
and STPs, and in regional discharges [20], and its acute toxicity to
aquatic organisms was investigated [16]. It was shown to be pho-
todegraded by UV irradiation at 254nm[15] and its photoproducts
formed by UV irradiation in the presence of photocatalysts, such
as TiO
2
and H
2
O
2
, have been identied [1,34,36]. However, the UV
photoproduct(s) of AA in the absence of any photocatalyst have
not been identied and its potential toxicity to aquatic organisms
1010-6030/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotochem.2012.07.018
30 K. Kawabata et al. / Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry 249 (2012) 2935
Fig. 1. Structure of acetaminophen.
remains to be investigated. Photodegradation of pharmaceuticals
intheabsenceof aphotocatalyst is animportant issue, becausesuch
photodegradation may occur in aquatic environments exposed to
sunlight.
The aimof this research is to investigate the photodegradation
of AA and also to identify the photoproduct and evaluate its tox-
icity to aquatic organisms. In this work, photodegradation of AA
exposed to UV irradiation at 254nm was demonstrated, and the
degradation rate was determined by means of high-performance
liquid chromatography (HPLC). Identication of the photoproduct
was carried out using electrospray ionization time-of-ight mass
spectrometry (ESI-TOF/MS/MS), and the toxicity of AA and its pho-
toproduct was examined by employing the luminescent bacteria
test, ISO11348.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Materials were purchased from the following sources:
acetaminophen (purity 98%), dimethyl sulfoxide (purity 99%)
and sodium chloride (purity 99%) from Wako Pure Chemicals
(Osaka, Japan), p-aminophenol (purity 98%) fromKatayama Chem-
ical Industries (Osaka, Japan), reserpine (purity 99%) from Nacalai
Tesque (Kyoto, Japan), methanol (purity 99%) fromKanto Chemical
(Tokyo, Japan), and acetic acid (purity 99%) from SigmaAldrich
(Poole, UK). Milli-Q (18.2m/cm) water was prepared by using a
Milli-Q water purication system(Millipore, Billerica, USA).
2.2. Synthetic procedures
The photoproduct, 1-(2-amino-5-hydroxyphenyl)ethanone
(C
8
H
9
NO
2
), was synthesized according to the reported method
to conrm its structure [8]. Yellow powder.
1
H NMR (400MHz,
CD
3
OD): 2.55 (s, Me), 6.65 (d, J =8.8, H-C(3)), 6.85 (dd, J =8.8,
2.8, H-C(4)), 7.16 (d, J =2.8, H-C(6)). The mass spectrumshows the
base peak [C
8
H
9
NO
2
+H]
+
at a mass/charge ration (m/z) 152.0721
(calculated m/z for C
8
H
10
NO
2
, 152.0711).
2.3. Photodegradation experiments
UV irradiation was carried out at 254nm in a light cabinet
equipped with a 6W UVGL-58 Handheld UV lamp (UVP, Upland,
California, USA) and appropriate lters. The irradiation intensity
was 200W/cm
2
at 15cmfromthesource, as measuredwithadigi-
tal radiometer having a 254nmsensor (UV-37SD, CUSTOM, Tokyo,
Japan). A solution of AA (50g/50mL) in Milli-Q water was irra-
diated in glass vessel with the UV lamp (water depth was 3cm,
distance from the lamp about 15cm). Irradiation times were 0,
6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96h at 20