Abstract
Emerging pollutants (EPs) are chemicals known to cause major impacts on the terrestrial, aquatic life and human health as a result of their chronic and acute toxicity. Although lots of studies on EPs behavior in the aquatic environment are currently available in literature, an urgent requirement exists to complete toxicological studies and develop and implement efficient and ecological methods for their removal. This paper raises some relevant problems related to water environment pollution with EPs, the risks they can generate for aquatic life and humans and opportunities to reduce the effects of pollution by EPs removal. Categories of emerging chemicals of concern in the environment, their sources, fate and impacts, with some examples are discussed. Organic UV filters are shortly presented as a relative new EPs category, with a focus on the need to develop extensive experimental studies on their environmental occurrence, fate and removal. Furthermore, sources for the aquatic environment resulting from discharging EPs directly into rivers from wastewater treatment plants are examined. The incidence of environmental and human health risks related to EPs is also considered. The removal of EPs from the environment as a solution to risk mitigation is addressed, with emphasis on several non-conventional processes involving biological removal of EPs. The paper provides a critical look at the current challenges posed by the presence of emerging pollutants in the aquatic environment, with critical comments and recommendations for further research to reduce the impact of EPs on water and human health and improve the performance of developed methods for their removal.
Highlights
Environmental pollution has become one of the most challenging and everyday problem
We present the current state of the art on the occurrence, fate, risks and removal of emerging pollutants in water and the challenges for improving existing technologies to remove emerging pollutants as a basis for sustainable water resources management
This is necessary as the Water Framework Directive [8] requires member states to establish national programs containing watching lists for emerging pollutants (EPs); these pollutants require additional attention because of the risks mentioned above which they can generate at any time
Summary
Environmental pollution has become one of the most challenging and everyday problem. With the industrialization and urbanization, the degradation of the environmental quality has evolved worryingly. Literature studies suggest that current mechanisms for collecting specific information on the dynamics of emerging pollutants in water need to be updated and refined to avoid risks for water quality, flora and fauna in river basins [3,4] This is necessary as the Water Framework Directive [8] requires member states to establish national programs containing watching lists for emerging pollutants (EPs); these pollutants require additional attention because of the risks mentioned above which they can generate at any time. The establishment of extensive databases on emerging pollutants is an open issue, as they would provide data on the properties of EPs and their metabolites and for motivating member states to include EPs in water quality surveys [4] These approaches would be prerequisites for the development of appropriate water treatment and sustainable methods for the removal of these pollutants from the environment, fundamental for human and environmental health protection [3,4,9]. Current knowledge gaps, future research directions and critical understanding of state of the art on single treatment processes and/or combinations of biological and physical processes in hybrid systems for increasing the efficiency of EPs removal are shown
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