Fragrances in Surface Waters

Fragrances are widely used as additive ingredients in personal care products, which can enter the surface water system via wastewater discharges. Fragrances in surface water may further sink into surface sediment and bioaccumulate into aquatic biota. This chapter summarized the occurrence of fragrances in these environmental media. Fragrances have been widely detected in surface waters around the world. Polycyclic musks (galaxolide and tonalide) and nitro musks (musk ketone and musk xylene) are the mostly detected fragrances in surface waters. The maximum reported galaxolide concentration was tens of μg/L. Other fragrance allergens were also reported to be detected in surface waters of European and North American countries. Sediments are the sink of fragrances in the environment and again the predominant compounds reported were synthetic musk, especially galaxolide and tonalide, with the maximum concentrations up to tens of μg/kg. Many polycyclic musks have been detected in freshwater wild biota all over the world, with concentrations up to thousands of μg/kg. Meanwhile, HHCB-lactone the transformation product of galaxolide was also detected in surface water and sediment, suggesting that non-targeting screening is needed. Some fragrances showed low to high ecological risks to aquatic organisms and human health risks via consumption of fish, implying the importance of further use control of fragrances.