Abstract
Chemical and microbial contaminants in the aquatic environment pose a potential threat to humans and to ecosystems. Humans may be exposed to contaminants in water resources when used for drinking water production, agriculture, aquaculture or recreation. Climatological, social and demographic changes, as well as the increasing sensitivity of analytical techniques, may result in the augmented detection of contaminants. Recent research has shown that it takes about 15 years from the time of the first scientific study mentioning the presence of a contaminant in the environment for the issue to peak in scientific attention and regulatory action. One possible factor influencing this lengthy period is that the first article becomes lost in the vast number of publications. In this study, we therefore developed a methodology using literature mining to identify the first scientific study which reports the presence of a contaminant in the aquatic environment. The developed semi-automated methodology enables health and environment agencies to inform policy makers about contaminants in the aquatic environment that could be significant for public and environmental health in national, international and river basin settings. The methodology thereby assists the proactive governance of emerging contaminants in the aquatic environment. This was illustrated by a retrospective analysis of the period of emergence in the Netherlands of: (1) perfluorooctanoic acid in surface water, and (2) biological industrial wastewater treatment systems as potential infection sources for Legionnaires´ disease.
Highlights
Human activities result in the release of contaminants into the aquatic environment
Anthropogenic sources contaminating the aquatic environment include the effluents of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), industrial wastewater discharges, as well as runoff from agricultural land and urban areas [1]
Microbial contaminants have been detected in industrial wastewater, for instance viruses that have been accidently released during vaccine production [9]
Summary
Human activities result in the release of contaminants into the aquatic environment. Anthropogenic sources contaminating the aquatic environment include the effluents of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), industrial wastewater discharges, as well as runoff from agricultural land and urban areas [1]. Demographic, social and climatological changes aggravate the impact of human activities on the aquatic environment. Examples of these changes are the increased volumes and changed composition of wastewater caused by urbanisation and the decreasing dilution capacities of receiving water bodies due to droughts. Microbial contaminants have been detected in industrial wastewater, for instance viruses that have been accidently released during vaccine production [9]. Chemical and microbial contaminants released into the aquatic environment can pose a threat to human health when water resources are Hartmann et al Environ Evid (2019) 8:33 used for drinking water production or recreation, but can impact aquatic organisms. We refer to emerging contaminants for which the threat posed to human health or the aquatic environment is still unclear
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