Water Pollutants and Human Health: Challenges and Perspectives
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water and One Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2026 | Viewed by 503
Special Issue Editors
Interests: infection; immunity; endotoxin; water pollution; human health; new technology
2. Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C), Department of Animal Biology, University of Lisboa, Campo Grande 016, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: fungal pathogens; sand quality; water quality; water quality indicators; wastewater surveillance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Access to clean water is essential for health; however, it is uniquely vulnerable to pollution. In particular, microbial contaminants are a major concern for human health. This Special Issue of Water aims to focus on recreational water and act both as a review of current methods to measure water quality and explore innovative approaches. A theme throughout this Special Issue is to highlight the limitations of current regulations and to challenge them, presenting possible improvements. For example, current regulations for assessing bathing water quality rely on fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) without considering the diversity of non-fecal pathogens and many opportunities, many emerging due to climate change and other disturbances to the water ecosystem. We aim to consider alternative microbial indicators that may provide additional assessments of recreational water quality from a human health perspective. These include papers focused on endotoxin and health, fungal contaminants, contaminants from sand, and emerging pathogens (e.g., Vibrio spp and Candida auris). New methods of microbial detection that include such pathogens will be reviewed, as well as innovative approaches to detect broader microbial contamination. A major drawback to current regulations is the reliance on bacterial culture. Results of water quality after 24–48 hours are not helpful for proactive decision-making to protect human health. We will therefore include novel approaches aimed at producing nearer real-time results that are suitable for continuous monitoring. This Special Issue, therefore, focuses on the detection and potential impact of some of the contaminants missed by current indicators of water quality and innovative approaches to measure them.
This Special Issue of Water aims to focus on the detection and potential impact of some of the pollutants and contaminants missed by current indicators of water quality. We aim to gather submissions of scientific statements focused on endotoxin and health, fungal contaminants, sand and bathing water, antimicrobial resistance genes, and antibiotics, including their metabolites, micro-plastics, and emerging pathogens associated with climate change (e.g., Vibrio spp. and Candida auris).
Prof. Dr. Simon Jackson
Dr. João Brandão
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 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. Water 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 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.
Keywords
- biomarkers
- endotoxin
- fungal contaminants
- AMR genes
- antimicrobials
- microplastics
- emerging pathogens
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