Emerging contaminants

Keywords Emerging contaminants, Illicit drugs, Occurrence, Pharmaceuticals, Wastewater treatment... 

Influence of Hydrological Conditions on the Occurrence of Emerging Contaminants in... 

Richardson SD (2008) Environmental mass spectrometry emerging contaminants and current issues. Anal Chem 80(12) 4373 1402... 

Emerging Contaminants from Industrial and Municipal Waste... 

Analytical measurement Pros - Results obtained reflect well reality - Repeatability and reproducibility of results (at least between good qualified labs) - Measurements are independent of information/data sources - Multipurpose analytical methods can cover many compounds on a single run - Even the best model will ultimately need to be experimentally checked - Discovery of new emerging contaminants is possible... 

In recent years the interest of environmental analytical chemistry was turned to the so-called emerging contaminants or new unregulated contaminants including pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, detergents, personal care products, plasticizers, flame retardants, gasoline additives, etc. These compounds are released continuously to the environment and can be found in water, sediments, soils, etc. In most of the cases they are found at trace level concentration (ng/L) therefore, powerful analytical capabilities are required for their determination. 

The occurrence, behavior, and toxicity of all these emerging contaminants continue to be an intensive area of research, especially investigations about their removal from environmental waters (e.g., through advanced oxidation, photolysis, microbial degradation, etc.). Therefore, the identification of intermediates and degradation products originated as a result of these removal mechanisms is of... 

Snow DD, Bartelt-Hunt SL, Devivo S, Saunders S, Cassada DA (2009) Detection, occurrence, and fate of emerging contaminants in agricultural environments. Water Environ Res 81(10) 941-958... 

This chapter reviews the published analytical methods for the determination of selected emerging contaminants in sewage sludge samples, including sample preparation techniques as well as instrumental approaches. We survey the current state of the art and examine future perspectives. Finally, levels of selected compounds found in sewage sludge samples are reviewed. 

In this chapter, among the large variety of compounds, we include some of the emerging contaminants most commonly found in sewage sludge pharmaceutical compounds, estrogens, illicit drugs, UV filters (sunscreens), BFRs, and PFCs. 

Several methodologies have been published for the determination of selected emerging contaminants in sewage sludge. The most recently reported methods are summarized in Table 1, comprising extraction of the sludge sample, subsequent purification of the extract, and final analysis by either gas or liquid chromatography (GC or LC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) or tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS). 

There are a number of procedures described in the literature dealing with the extraction of emerging contaminants from solid matrices. For extractions of solid samples, Soxhlet is widely accepted as a robust liquid-solid extraction technique. 

Table I Overview of methods applied to determination of emerging contaminants in sewage sludge ... 

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