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What are Emerging Contaminants?
New analytical capabilities have allowed scientists to identify chemicals in the environment in extremely small concentrations. Emerging contaminants (ECs) are those chemicals that have been shown to occur widely in the environment and also identified as being a potential environmental or public health risk, and yet adequate data do not exist to determine this risk (Drewes and Shore, 2001; Younos, 2005). ECs are used every day in our homes, on our farms, or by businesses and industry and include household chemicals, fragrances, prescription and non-prescription drugs, personal care products, disinfectants, and pesticides. Results from recent research indicate that some of these compounds can act as endocrine disrupting compounds and are present in municipal wastewater effluent at concentrations capable of inducing feminization in fish (Jobling and others, 1998; Kavanagh and others, 2004). The feminization has been linked to exposure to compounds that mimic estrogen activity. However, it has also been determined that thousands of compounds have the potential to interact with components of the endocrine system, altering the natural action of the hormone (Drewes and others, 2006).
Some ECs have been shown to be common in water resources around the world, across the Nation, and in Colorado (Ternes, 1998; Drewes and Shore, 2001; Kolpin and others, 2002; Yang and Carlson, 2003; Lee and others, 2004; Sprague and Battaglin, 2005; Barber and others, 2006a). ECs have also been shown to occur in soil irrigated with reclaimed water (Kinney and others, 2006), accumulate in fish from wastewater treatment wetlands (Barber and others, 2006b), and to disrupt cellular development and hormonal function in sheep reared on sewage-sludge treated pasture (Catriona et al, 2005). Complex mixtures of ECs at environmentally relevant concentrations were reported to inhibit the growth of human embryonic cells (Pomati et al, 2006) and to produce significant effects at the molecular level even at levels below no-observed-effect-concentrations (Silva et al, 2002). The occurrence of some emerging contaminants correlates with ecological effects and sexual abnormalities in fish although a cause-and-effect relation has not been established (Jobling and others, 1998; Barber and others, 2006b). There is also evidence that some ECs are persistent in the environment and survive through conventional water treatment processes representing a potential concern to public drinking water supplies utilizing water resources that contain ECs (Drewes and others, 2003; Westerhoff and others, 2005). At an August 2005 workshop sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on pharmaceutical residues and personal care products in the environment, EPA officials announced the agency may include a significant number of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on the third candidate contaminant list (CCL3) published pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act. The draft CCL3 list is expected to be published this year and finalized in 2008 (Mannina, 2006). The proactive and interdisciplinary approach CREEC has proposed to address these issues may serve as a prime example for other communities nationwide since there is simply not a single solution to the problem and the EC issue requires approaches tailored to account for regional specifics. The current extent of knowledge for most ECs is that there is not enough information available to make an estimate of the ecotoxicological risk of ECs to the environment (Global Water Research Coalition, 2004).
References cited
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Catriona, P., Rhind, S.M., Kyle, C.E., Scott H., McKinnell C., and Sharpe, R.M., 2005, Cellular and hormonal disruption of fetal testis development in sheep reared on pasture treated with sewage sludge: Environmental Health Perspectives, 113(11), p. 1580-1587.
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