A perspective on the potential risks of emerging contaminants to human and environmental health

Abstract

Technological, agricultural, and medical advances have improved the lifestyle of humankind. However, these advances have caused new problems that affect the environment and future generations. Emerging contaminants display properties such as low degradation potential and environmental persistence. In addition, most contaminants are lipophilic, which culminates in high bioaccumulation. The disposal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products into the environment underlies microbial and bacterial resistance. Plasticizers change several characteristics of industrialized materials, such as flexibility, but they are potentially carcinogenic and disrupt the endocrine system. Pesticides prevent the propagation of numerous kinds of pests; nevertheless, they exert neurotoxic and mutagenic effects, and they impact the environment negatively. Addition of flame retardants to a number of materials prevents flame propagation; however, after their release into the environment, these chemicals may bioaccumulate in organisms and disrupt the endocrine system, too. Surfactants can change the surface and interfacial properties of liquids, but their presence in the environment can interfere with countless enzymes and can even impair the endocrine system of various organisms and induce the feminization of species. Hence, gaining knowledge about emerging contaminants is increasingly important to minimize future damage and enable proper monitoring of each class of compounds in the environment which will help to improve legislation on this matter.

Contaminants of Emerging Concern Removal in an Effluent of Wastewater Treatment Plant under Biological and Continuous Mode Ultrafiltration Treatment

“…In fact, the current legislation related to wastewater treatment (Directive 2000/60/EC, Directive 2008/56/EC, Directive 2013/39/EU) does not yet include most of these compounds and, therefore, WWTPs are not specifically designed to eliminate them. As a consequence, it has been found that WWTPs only a partial removal of several CEC, such as carbamazepine or diclofenac (< 25%) [6] continuous discharges give many aquatic environments at sublethal levels that could achieve chronic levels (low µg/L range) of many CEC [7,8]. Moreover, these CEC have even been found in water designated for human consumption [9,10].…”

Quantification of Anionic and Nonionic Surfactants in Domestic Wastewater Samples Collected From Romania

“…The hydrophilic part remains in contact with water, while the hydrophobic part did not have any contact with the aqueous phase. The classification of surfactants relies on their ionic behaviour in solution: anionic, cationic, nonionic or amphoteric (Pereira & Souza 2015). Surfactants are worldwide used in all branches of industry from domestic use (household products, personal care products and pharmaceuticals) to petroleum products and.…”

A comprehensive assessment of agricultural intensification scenarios for the Dongting Lake basin in south-central China in 2030

“…For exorbitant intensification, the increasing chemical material input, high water consumption, or livestock feeding may exacerbate more severe environmental problems, including eutrophication (Le et al 2010;Wang et al 2015), acidification (Guo et al 2010), water shortage (Shalizi 2006), a loss of biodiversity, agrochemical contamination, the pesticide poisoning of non-target organisms (Margoum et al 2015), and emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants (Dale and Polasky 2007). In addition, deterioration in the agricultural environment may imply more future degradation at the expense of other ecosystems (Power 2010),which may give rise to undesirable long-term effects on human health (Pereira et al 2015).…”