Tracking the Invisible Threat: Persistent Explosive Residues in Raw and Drinking Water Bodies


This study provides a comprehensive nationwide assessment of explosive residues and their degradation products in French water resources and drinking water, including mainland and overseas territories.

A total of 54 target compounds were selected based on historical usage, environmental persistence, and analytical feasibility. Between 2020 and 2022, water samples from nearly 300 sites—representing resources for 20–25% of the French population—were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Explosive residues were detected in 11% of the 797 samples.

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Source:Science Direct


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