Occurrence and Health Risk Assessment of Antibiotics in Drinking Water of a City in Southern China

Abstract In recent years, antibiotics have been widely used to treat some human and animal diseases, which due to their large production and usage. The antibiotic pollution in the environment has attracted more and more people’s attention. As a large country in the production and use of antibiotics, antibiotics has been detected in various environmental media in China, even in drinking water. However, drinking water is closely related to the health of residents. It is very necessary to understand the occurrence of antibiotics in drinking water and assess the health risk. Therefore, in this study, taking a city in southern China as an example, it was detected that the concentration of antibiotics in the drinking water was 226.8∼498.1ng/L, and the main pollutants were tetracycline and quinolone antibiotics. The non-carcinogenic risk assessment shows that drinking tap water for residents in this area will not pose a risk to their health.