Emerging Contaminants in Water: Is It still a Conundrum?

Dear Colleagues,

The presence of emerging contaminants in water bodies is a topic of concern, both in environmental science and health-care sectors. These contaminants have different origins, such as residues of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, polymeric products, etc., and they end up in wastewater treatment plants, where they are subjected to biodegradation and sorption to biomass. In some cases, the degradation products of these compounds have been reported to be more toxic than the parent compound which indicates the inefficiency of current technologies of wastewater treatment plants. Furthermore, the sorbed portion may be used as a fertilizer, which can lead to contamination of agricultural lands and hence soils.

Considering the potential and established adverse effects of emerging contaminants, the pathway and fate of emerging contaminants need to be thoroughly investigated. The conventional treatment systems have been proved to be inefficient and therefore new methods for degradation and removal of these contaminants and their harmful by-products are required. Additionally, the impacts of the presence of emerging contaminants, i.e., acute toxicity and chronic toxicity, in water and food cycle on human and environment need more attention. Furthermore, emerging contaminants are normally present in complex matrices at very low concentrations and the current techniques for quantification and toxicity assessment are not fast and efficient.

The broad extension of this issue should be focused on the development and application of analytical technologies and treatment methods for the detection, toxicity assessment, and removal of emerging contaminants. Specific attention should be paid to the correlation between the environmentally-relevant levels of these contaminants with toxicological risk and removal efficiency. For treatment methods, toxicity assessment of by-products and analytical method matrix effects should be studied.

Prof. Dr. Satinder Kaur Brar
Dr. Mehrdad Taheran
Guest Editor

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