Chapter 18 - Health risk assessment and mitigation of emerging contaminants: A call for an integrated approach

Abstract

Emerging contaminants are a diverse group comprising several synthetic organic chemicals, high-technology rare earth elements, antimicrobial resistance, and microplastics. The mitigation of the pollution and health risks of emerging contaminants is largely dominated by end-of-pipe approaches relying on the application of hard engineering tools to remove emerging contaminants. To date, the ‘human factor’ entailing public knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) and the application of cross-cutting soft engineering tools have only received cursory research attention. Therefore, the present chapter posits that the mitigation of environmental pollution and health risks of emerging contaminants calls for the integration of soft and hard engineering tools. Firstly, the paper presents qualitative and quantitative health risk assessment protocols, followed by a discussion of environmental and public health surveillance systems as early warning tools and their challenges in low-income countries. Thirdly, the role of economic/financial instruments and the ‘human factor’ is discussed. Thereafter, a discussion on hard engineering technologies for substitution/replacement, removal/remediation, and the 4Rs (reduce, recycle, recover, reuse) for the various groups of emerging contaminants is presented. Taken together, the mitigation of environmental pollution and health risks of emerging contaminants requires a paradigm shift from the current approach dominated by hard engineering to a systematic understanding and integration of both soft and hard engineering approaches. Finally, future research directions on the environmental pollution and health risks of emerging contaminants and mitigation measures are highlighted.