Organic Micropollutants in the Different Environmental Compartments

Abstract

Organic micropollutants (OMPs), also called pollutants of emerging concern in certain circumstances, encompass a large group of chemical substances of natural or anthropogenic origin that, due to their molecular characteristics, present risks to human health. These include, among other chemicals, personal care products, food additives, flame retardants, and pharmaceuticals. In the light of the literature on the subject, the presence of OMPs in the different environmental compartments is addressed: air, water and soil. Results of the determinations, by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, of the concentrations of a large group of OMPs in the atmospheric particulate matter of the city of Puebla, river water, irrigation water and groundwater from the Nexapa river basin, Puebla and in Colombian soils are presented. In these environmental matrices the concentrations were in the ppb to ppt range.