Emerging Contaminants in Trans-American Waters

Abstract

Industrial development has made new products available to people to make their lives easier. Items such as food, cleaning, personal care and health products, among others, are processed, sold and consumed daily by all age groups. These products include in their formulation inorganic and organic chemicals with the purpose of improving or increasing some of their properties, making them more attractive to the consumer. These substances are strictly controlled during production so that the final product may be safely consumed. In most cases, the constituents of commercial products end up in wastewater, where they are not controlled. These uncontrolled pollutants of differing chemical natures are known as “Emerging Contaminants” (ECs). Research worldwide has found ECs in various environmental matrices, especially water. To understand this problem, four fundamental aspects must be addressed: 1) the analytical methods for its determination; 2) the occurrence in environmental matrices; 3) the treatments for the removal of ECs in wastewater and drinking water plants; and 4) the risks to health and the environment. This document reviews these four aspects with regard to 14 ECs commonly found in the studies around the world and addresses the state of these ECs in trans-American waters.

Adsorption of Estradiol by Natural Clays and Daphnia magna as Biological Filter in an Aqueous Mixture with Emerging Contaminants

“…Currently, there is a growing interest in the so-called emerging contaminants (ECs), compounds of different origins and chemical nature whose presence in the environment is not considered significant in terms of distribution and/or concentration [1]. ECs include drugs and personal care products, surfactants, flame retardants, industrial and food additives, steroids, hormones, bactericides, illicit drugs, compounds such as caffeine and nicotine, and disinfection by-products [2,3].…”

“…It contains high concentrations of solvents, catalysts, additives, and reagents, especially antibiotics [6]. Wastewaters containing these compounds are discharged directly into the environment or are treated in wastewater treatment plants where ECs are not effectively eliminated due to their low concentrations and complexity [1,7,8]. One of the characteristics of these pollutants is that they do not have to be persistent in the environment to cause negative effects since their high transformation and elimination rates can be offset by their continuous introduction into the environment [9].…”

“…Endocrine disruptors such as estradiol and triclosan interfere with the endocrine system and disrupt the physiological function of hormones by mimicking, blocking, or disrupting their function thus affecting the health of humans and animal species [12][13][14][15][16]. Nicotine, sulfamethoxazole, triclosan and estradiol have been found in superficial water bodies such as rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans [1,[17][18][19][20][21][22] and even in drinking water. Hence pointing out that the current treatment methods are not effective to eliminate these compounds [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

“…Recently, the ability of some techniques to remove ECs from water, such as advanced oxidation and adsorption has been discussed. For instance, estrogens removal rates vary between 100 µgL −1 to 10 mgL −1 in time periods that oscillate between 7 to 300 min with electrochemical advanced oxidation treatment [27]; however, these processes present a high cost and difficulty of implementation [1]. On the other hand, adsorption methods have the disadvantage that they only generate a phase transfer.…”

Comparison of the adsorption capacity of acetaminophen on sugarcane bagasse and corn cob by dynamic simulation

“…When these compounds reach the wastewater treatment plants (WTPs), there is no effective technology that can completely eliminate this type of pollutants, so their removal is only partial [3]. As a result of this, traces of these pollutants have been found in surface water, groundwater, and even in drinking water from various countries in concentrations of ng L − 1 , μg L − 1 and up to mg L − 1 [4,5].…”