Environmental water pollution, main sources

The WFD, so far, has identified 33 priority hazardous pollutants (PHS), for which Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) have been set. To some extent, these EQS can be met through the establishment of emission control measures. These PHS may originate from several different sources and activities. The main sources of toxic substances to water bodies in Europe may be categorised as agriculture, sewage treatment plants, urban runoff, industry, contaminated lake/ river sediment, soils and landfills. Input via atmospheric transport and deposition has also been identified as an important source both far from and close to source areas. Many of the PS are today banned in Europe, but due to their persistence they are still present in the environment [30]. 

Studies of the source of exposure to PFCs have rarely been conducted. Thus, studies of the source of contamination with PFC, the source of exposure, the difihision path, the accumulated form, and toxicity are necessary. Currently, environmental contaminant of PFCs were mainly reported in polluted mud, ° environmental water, ° and atmosphere. However, the concentrations of detected PFCs are extremely low, and it is not sufficient to evaluate them as an exposure source. Therefore, we focused on house and carpet dust, ° which exists in our daily lives and contains many chemicals, to clarify the source of e xisure to PFCs, and discussed a highly sensitive and accurate method for the analysis of PFCs in house and carpet dust. The analytes were PFOS, PFOA, PFNA, and PFHxS, which are frequently detected in human blood, and surrogate standards were C4-PFOS and Cx-PFOA. The supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method was used for house and carpet dust. Effective extraction is expected when supercritical liquid is used as the extraction solvent, as the elution ability of supercritical liquid is similar to that of conventional liquid and supercritical fluid can permeate every comer of the sample, as air does. 

The monitoring of environmental pollutants degradation and their remediation has emerged as a key issue. In particular, the issue of potable water quality is a great public health concern. The main sources of its pollution are industrial wastewater, municipal waste, and the effluents of wastewater treatment facilities. A number of technologies have been introduced for the purification of polluted water. The efficiency and effectiveness of these processes, i.e., the removal of pollutants, is monitored by incorporating a... 

Furthermore, we concentrate on one specific type of environmental pollution, namely water pollution caused by the production of chemical substances. Water pollution is one of the main sources of industrial pollution in the chemical sector. Waste water is produced by cooling chemical processes, by cleaning equipment and pipes, by the employees of chemical companies, and by joint products in chemical reactions. Waste water resulting from joint products is an idiosyncrasy of the chemical industry (Muller-FUrstenberger, 1995) The conversion of a starting material and at least one reaction partner (supported by the addition of further substances such as solvents, some auxiliary substances and a catalyst) into the desired chemical substance is necessarily accompanied by the production of some undesired joint products which may contaminate water. 

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