Emerging Contaminants in Soil and Water: Sources, Behaviour, and Environmental and Human Health Risks

Dear Colleagues,

Emerging contaminants (ECs) refer to a group of natural or anthropogenic origin chemicals of natural or anthropogenic origin that are often not monitored and regulated under current environmental laws. There are growing concerns about the lack of environmental health and safety data on these chemicals. ECs include a range of chemical compounds, from estrogen-like compounds, flame retardants, detergents, microplastics, nanomaterials, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, surfactants, personal care products, and some industrial chemicals, among others. With the advancements in analytical techniques, more and more emerging contaminants have been identified and added to the list. ECs are usually recalcitrant and bioaccumulable and can have lethal effects on humans and wildlife endocrine systems, even in trace quantities. Thus, ECs may have considerable adverse impacts on ecosystem safety and public health.

ECs are increasingly being released into the soil and water compartments of the environment, both intentionally and unintentionally, from point and non-point sources depending on their pattern of use and mode of application. Unfortunately, the principal sinks of ECs in the environment include agricultural soils, urban surface runoff, and discharge from sewage treatment plants. Once released into the environment, they undergo various physico-chemical and biological transformation processes upon interaction with biotic and abiotic components. The main transformation processes are biodegradation, redox reactions, hydrolysis, photolysis, etc. Although these transformation processes reduce contaminant loadings, some of the transformed products are more toxic than the parent compound, raising concerns about their presence in the environment. Emerging contaminants and their transformed product distribution in aquatic and terrestrial environments ultimately affect human health. Moreover, these contaminants enter the food chain via the consumption of food plants grown in contaminated soils, mainly through the soil to plant uptake and translocation. Thus, it is crucial to understand the environmental behavior, bioavailability, and ultimate toxicity of ECs to assess their ecological risks.

This Special Issue aims to share the latest scientific knowledge on the environmental release sources of a broad range of emerging contaminants, their transformation processes in the natural environment under the influence of both biotic and abiotic factors, the behavior of transformed products, and the assessment of human health risks.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Release sources, distribution, and transport of emerging contaminants;
• Analytical techniques for the detection and quantification of ECs;
• Physical, chemical, and biological transformation in the soil and water system;
• Impact of ECs and their transformed products on the ecosystem;
• Toxicity studies;
• Food chain transfer through the soil–plant system ;
• Environmental and human health risk assessment;
• Soil ecotoxicology;
• Policy supports for the environmental.

Dr. Balal Yousaf
Dr. Qumber Abbas
Dr. Muhammad Ubaid Ali
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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