The use of illicit drugs causes unquestionable societal and economic damage. To implement actions aimed at combating drug abuse, it is necessary to assess illicit drug consumption patterns. The purpose of this paper was to develop, optimize, validate and apply a procedure for determining new psychoactive substances (NPSs) and classic drugs of abuse and their main metabolites in wastewater samples by using solid phase extraction (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Moreover, detailed validation of the procedure was conducted. The developed SPE–HPLC-MS/MS procedure (within the sewage-based epidemiology strategy) allowed for the simultaneous, selective, very sensitive, accurate (recoveries ≥ 80.1%) and precise (CV ≤ 8.1%) determination of new and classic psychoactive substances in wastewater samples. This study is characterized by new scientific elements, especially in terms of the freeze-thaw and post-preparative stability of the selected psychoactive substances. This is the first time that NPSs (mephedrone and ketamine), the main metabolites of heroin (6-acetylmorphine, 6-AM) and marijuana (11-nor-9-carboxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, THC-COOH) have been detected and monitored in Poland. This study is also the first to corroborate the data available from the EMCDDA and EUROPOL report and indicates that the retail market for cocaine is expanding in Eastern Europe.

Runoff waters from airport areas constitute a serious environmental problem. It is essential to monitor levels of pollutants emitted into the environment and measure their toxicity on a continuous basis. The authors’ aim was to critically review data on pollution from aviation fuel combustion, aviation fuel spillage, the washing and cleaning of aircraft and airport service equipment, and the use of de-/anti-icing agents published in scientific journals. The authors also summarize information on the analytical methodologies available for the determination of pollutants emitted during airport operations and provide data on the toxicity of runoff containing compounds used in de-/anti-icing operations.

A fundamental aspect of airport operations is the pollution caused by airport runoff waters. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one of the most important groups of xenobiotics which are commonly found in runoff water originating from airports. Only very limited data on the analysis of airport runoff water have been published until now. Therefore, a reliable and accurate analytical method based on headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOF-MS) for simultaneous determination of 16 PAHs in airport runoff water was developed. The optimization of the HS-SPME procedure resulted in the following extraction conditions: extraction time of 45 min, temperature of 70 °C, salt addition of 3.0 g, and desorption time of 10 min at 270 °C. The recovery values obtained using this method (63–108%) mostly fell within the acceptable range for the analytical procedures. This indicates that HS-SPME is a suitable and efficient tool for the extraction of PAHs from airport wastewater, the latter being characterized by a very complex matrix composition. In addition, the developed procedure exhibited satisfactory selectivity, accuracy and a low MDL (0.22–2.20 ng L⁻¹). It should be emphasized that the presented procedure is new with respect to the determination of toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic analytes in the original environmental samples, elaboration of the detailed metrological characteristics, and the diversity of places from which runoff water samples are collected. The validated analytical protocol was successfully applied to determine the aforementioned organic pollutants in real samples collected from different international airports. Regardless of the airport location, chrysene, phenanthrene and pyrene were the most abundant PAH compounds detected in all analyzed samples (1.8–26.3 μg L⁻¹). The presented methodology can be used for tracking the environmental fate of PAHs and assessing the impact of airports on the environment.

Airport runoff can contain high concentrations of various pollutants, in particular polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the environmental levels of which have to be monitored. Airport runoff water samples, collected at the Gdańsk-Rębiechowo Airport from 2008 to 2009, were analysed for PAHs and PCBs by gas chromatography. The aromatic fractions were separated by liquid-liquid extraction and analysed by GC/MS. Total PAH concentrations were 295–6,758 ng/L in 2008 and 180–1,924 ng/L in 2009, while total PCB levels in 2008 ranged from 0.14 to 0.44 µg/L and in 2009 from 0.06 to 0.23 µg/L. The PAH and PCB compositions in airport runoff waters were examined over a range of spatial and temporal scales to determine distributions, trends and possible sources. This pollution is mainly pyrolytic and related to anthropogenic activity. There were significant differences between the samples collected in the two seasons. An understanding of the magnitude of contamination due to airport runoff water is important for the effective management of airport infrastructure.