Identification of Emerging Pollutants and Human Exposure

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 291

Special Issue Editors

School of Environment and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
Interests: environmental analytical chemistry; human exposure assessment
School of Chemistry & Molecular Engineering and Research Centre of Analysis and Test, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
Interests: environmental analytical chemistry; development of mass spectrometry for screening new pollutants; development of clinical mass spectrometry methods; biological drug mass spectrometry; development of mass spectrum data analysis algorithm

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid proliferation of industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and their transformation products has led to growing concerns about emerging pollutants. Their presence in environmental matrices (e.g., air, water, soil, and biota) and the related human exposure raise urgent questions about long-term exposure risks and impacts on human health. This Special Issue invites cutting-edge research on the identification, analysis, exposure assessment, and mitigation of emerging pollutants across environmental and biological matrices. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Novel analytical methods for emerging pollutants, e.g., suspect and non-targeted screening based on mass spectrometric methods.
  • Exposure pathways (dietary, inhalation, dermal) of emerging pollutants.
  • Health risks associated with emerging pollutants
  • Remediation strategies: innovative technologies for removing or degrading emerging pollutants.

We welcome submissions that combine interdisciplinary research in the fields of environmental chemistry, toxicology, public health, and environmental engineering, and hope that this Special Issue will contribute to a deeper understanding of emerging pollutants, their risks, and actionable solutions for mitigating their impacts.

Dr. Xiaotu Liu
Dr. Ting Wu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • emerging contaminants
  • remediation strategies
  • non-targeted analysis
  • biomonitoring
  • exposome
  • risk assessment

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 418 KiB  
Article
Short-, Medium-, and Long-Chain Chlorinated Paraffins in Indoor Dust from South China and the Midwestern United States
by Shuyue Wang, Qiuyan Ke, Wenwen Sun, Yukun Chen, Mehvish Mumtaz, Yumeng Shi and Xiaotu Liu
Toxics 2025, 13(6), 428; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics13060428 - 23 May 2025
Viewed by 195
Abstract
In the present study, liquid chromatography–quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) was employed to analyze chlorinated paraffin (CP) homolog distributions and concentrations in household dust from South China and the Midwestern United States. The median levels of short-, medium-, and long-chain CPs (∑SCCPs, ∑MCCPs, [...] Read more.
In the present study, liquid chromatography–quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) was employed to analyze chlorinated paraffin (CP) homolog distributions and concentrations in household dust from South China and the Midwestern United States. The median levels of short-, medium-, and long-chain CPs (∑SCCPs, ∑MCCPs, ∑LCCPs) in South China were quantified as 23.1, 36.2, and 32.8 μg/g, respectively. Comparatively, the corresponding values in the Midwestern U.S. samples were 9.4, 39.5, and 15.4 μg/g, respectively. Notably, ∑LCCP concentrations in South China significantly exceeded those in the U.S. (p < 0.05), while no difference was found for ∑SCCPs and ∑MCCPs. Additionally, very short-chain CPs (C≤9) were detected in 13% of samples across both regions. The distribution of CP homologues in the dust samples from the two regions was similar, with C13, C14, and C18 groups as the predominant carbon homologue and Cl7-8, Cl7-9, and Cl9-10 as the predominant chlorine homologue of SCCPs, MCCPs, and LCCPs, respectively. Risk assessment indicated dust ingestion-derived CP intakes for adults and toddlers were 2–5 orders of magnitude below reference doses. However, given other exposure pathways and the combined effects of CP monomers, the potential health risks from exposure via dust should not be underestimated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Identification of Emerging Pollutants and Human Exposure)
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