Health Risk Assessment of Exposure to Emerging Contaminants

Dear Colleagues,

Typically, emerging contaminants are compounds that have recently been detected in the environment or whose impacts have only recently been recognized. Such contaminants have heightened public awareness, with growing concerns over pharmaceuticals, endocrine-disrupting compounds, and nanomaterials. Emerging contaminants are increasingly being recognized as a significant environmental and public health concern. Their persistence in the environment and tendency to bioaccumulate in the food chain means that long-term exposure could lead to adverse health effects, particularly as they accumulate in higher concentrations in the human body. However, the health impacts of many emerging contaminants remain poorly understood due to the lack of comprehensive toxicological data and health risk assessments, rendering their potential risks to human health largely unknown and a matter of public safety concern. This Special Issue aims to provide a holistic and predicted assessment of the exposure and health risks associated with emerging contaminants, emphasizing the need for effective risk management strategies. By analyzing exposure pathways and health outcomes, this Special Issue aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on environmental health and advocate for proactive measures to safeguard public health. This Special Issue welcomes research topics including, but not limited to, the following:

1. The sources, distribution, and toxicity mechanisms of typical emerging contaminants;
2. The pharmacokinetics of emerging contaminants in the body;
3. Exposure assessment of the potential hazards of emerging contaminants on human health through various exposure pathways;
4. Health risk assessment of emerging contaminants on human health;
5. Exposure factors used in exposure and health risk assessments;
6. Exposure scenarios and exposure modeling construction for health risk assessments;
7. The relationships between external and internal exposure dose;
8. Aggregative and cumulative exposure assessments;
9. Biomonitoring for the exposure dose of emerging contaminants;
10. The association between emerging contaminants’ exposure and detrimental health outcomes.

Dr. Suzhen Cao
Guest Editor

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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.

• health risk assessment
• emerging contaminants
• microplastics
• endocrine disruptors
• persistent organic pollutant
• antibiotics
• exposure pathways
• exposure scenarios
• exposure factors
• toxicity mechanisms
• epidemiological research
• toxicological studies
• risk mitigation strategies