Emerging Contaminants in the Environment: Measurement, Transport, Impacts, Bioaccumulation, and Remediation

Dear Colleagues,

Emerging contaminants (such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFASs, microplastics, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products, among many others) are of global concern due to their wide presence and persistence in the environment, their potential to bioaccumulate in organisms, and their potential toxicity in relation to human and environmental health. These contaminants have been widely detected in soil, sediments, and water (including drinking water, surface water, and groundwater), offering significant exposure pathways that ultimately impact the environment and people’s lives. However, emerging contaminants are not widely regulated, which may be associated with the significant gaps in our understanding of their environmental transport, fate and behaviour, mixture interactions (including bioaccumulation), and environmental and human health risks. Also, ongoing debates on the most efficient measurement techniques for some of these contaminants, especially microplastics, further constrain their effective regulation, management, and control. It is important to minimise these constraints to ensure the more effective assessment, management, and control of these emerging contaminants in the environment.

This Special Issue aims to focus on the latest advances on the following topics related to emerging contaminants:

1. Occurrence and distribution;
2. Analytical measurements;
3. Environmental transport;
4. Mixture interactions and effects;
5. Bioaccumulation (terrestrial and aquatic organisms);
6. The impact to environment and human health;
7. Risk assessment and risk management;
8. Innovative remediation methods.

All researchers working in the fields above are cordially invited to submit your contributions.

Dr. Anthony Umeh
Prof. Dr. Ravi Naidu
Dr. Elvis Dartey Okoffo
Dr. Olukayode O. Jegede
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.