Emerging pollutants: definition, examples and how they affect us

Emerging pollutants are all those pollutants whose presence in the environment has recently been recognizeddue to the concern existing for the consequences that lead to their polluting effect for the environment and health. As its name indicates, these pollutants have emerged today, that is, they have been recently detected thanks to the application of new analytical technologies available for study and recognition. Despite having been employed continuously and prolonged for a long time, until the last 5 or 7 years the effects that can cause both in the environment and in people were not known.

Emerging pollutants are increasingly present in the environment, as a direct consequence of irresponsible activities of human beings, such as poor management of toxic waste and excess consumption of certain chemical products. In the next section we will see some specific examples of emerging pollutants To know better what it consists of.

In the vast majority of cases, emerging pollutants appear in wastewater, rivers and aquifers, being the main sources of emission of them agriculture and livestock, as well as poor management of toxic waste. Let’s look at the main examples or Types of emerging pollutants detected today:

• Pill medications, such as ibuprofen, which are expressed inappropriately by toilets and sinks or in normal garbage, instead of being taken to clean points of collection of medications in pharmacies, which is right for good management.
• Pharmaceutical products with skin application, such as creams, ointments and lotions, which deposit remains by not being completely absorbed by the skin, contaminating surface waters.
• Personal care and hygiene products, such as makeup and some soaps.
• Perflined compounds derived from pesticides, fungicides, plant accelerators and other products used in agriculture.
• Silver, gold and metal oxides nanoparticles from industrial activities.
• Drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
• Endocrine or hormonal disruptors. Know better this type of emerging pollutants that affect our hormones with this other post about what endocrine disruptors are.
• Plasticizers and industrial additives.
• Microplastics If you want to know these plastic pollutants better, you can consult this other ecology article about what microplastics, their definition and types are.

After not being able to be eliminated in the purifying stations in which the treatment of wastewater to which emerging pollutants reach, they usually accumulate in natural aquatic media, thus causing negative effects in the well -being and balance of ecosystems and species that inhabit it.

It is known that They affect the health in different ways (especially favoring hormonal problems, as in the case of endocrine disruptors) and Ecosystems unbalancedestroying habitats, among other problems. However, environmental information related to the effects of emerging pollutants on people’s health, biodiversity and the environment is not yet very wide to be able to specify more the negative effects of these pollutants. Therefore, it is essential to invest in more studies and research that reveals the specific effects of emerging pollutants, both nationally and internationally.

The possible effects, both in the short and long term, of the accumulation of emerging pollutants In natural and artificial aquatic ecosystems it is a problem that must be controlled by governments and societies, since the responsibility for the management of our waste concerns us all.

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