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Special Issue "Emerging Contaminants in Environment"

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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 2360

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. André Pereira

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Guest Editor

LAQV, REQUIMTE, Laboratory of Bromatology and Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Polo III, Azinhaga de Stª Comba, 3000-548 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: environmental contaminants; contaminants of emerging concern; pharmaceuticals; aquatic environment; occurrence and fate; environmental risk assessment; human risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Liliana J.G. Silva

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LAQV, REQUIMTE, Laboratory of Bromatology and Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Polo III, Azinhaga de Stª Comba, 3000-548 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: environmental and food safety; mycotoxins, pharmaceuticals, and other contaminants in foods and biological fluids; human exposure evaluation; biomonitoring
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Dr. Angelina Pena

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Guest Editor

LAQV, REQUIMTE, Laboratory of Bromatology and Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Polo III, Azinhaga de Stª Comba, 3000-548 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: food and environmental safety: food additives and contaminants; human and environmental risk assessment and human health surveillance: biomonitoring studies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Potential risks associated with the release of emerging contaminants into the environment have become an increasingly important issue in environmental health. This concern has been driven by the widespread detection of emerging contaminants in the environment. Most of these contaminants are continuously introduced in the environment and, albeit detected at trace levels, they are of concern as they can promote deleterious consequences at low concentrations, namely in the aquatic biota.

There is a lack of knowledge on emerging contaminants’ source, fate, occurrence, toxicity and environmental risk assessment, important issues for a proper risk evaluation and management.

Therefore, this Special Issue will tackle the source, fate, occurrence, toxicity and risk assessment of emerging contaminants in the environment.

Dr. André Pereira
Dr. Liliana J.G. Silva
Dr. Angelina Pena
Guest Editors

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Keywords

environmental contaminants
emerging contaminants
source
environmental risk assessment
toxicity
occurrence
fate

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Investigation of the Effect of Twelve Pharmaceuticals on Germination and Growth Parameters of Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.)

and

Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(11), 6759; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13116759 - 01 Jun 2023

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Abstract

Pharmaceuticals (PhACs) are chemical substances that, after their use, can reach wastewater treatment plants, but the resulting treated wastewater (TWW) can still contain these contaminants. If TWWs are used for irrigation, PhACs can contaminate crops and also hinder their growth. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of 12 PhACs and their mixture at different doses on basil germination and early growth and on its photosynthetic pigment content. The germination percentage was not affected by PhACs even when applied at the highest doses. The results showed that the germination speed cannot be considered as an index of vigor of future seedlings as not all seeds that germinated first developed the best. PhACs between 25 and 100 ppb did not show negative effects on early growth and photosynthetic pigments of basil; in fact, in some cases the seeds even benefitted from their application as if it were a chemical treatment developed for the seeds. The highest assessed dose of PhACs always caused a reduction in growth parameters and the photosynthetic pigment content of basil, especially with climbazole, naproxen, triclosan, and the mixture of PhACs. In general, basil can be considered a species tolerant to PhACs after taking into account their average content in wastewater; however, more studies are needed to evaluate the long-term effects of PhACs and their translocation to edible parts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Contaminants in Environment)

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Open AccessArticle

Pharmaceuticals Removal from Wastewater with Microalgae: A Pilot Study

André Pereira

Etiele Greque de Morais

Liliana Silva

Angelina Pena

Andreia Freitas

Margarida Ribau Teixeira

João Varela

and

Luísa Barreira

Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(11), 6414; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13116414 - 24 May 2023

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Abstract

Urban wastewaters contain pharmaceuticals that are not appropriately removed in conventional wastewater treatments, limiting treated water reuse. Microalgae have been shown to remove pharmaceuticals from urban wastewater in laboratory trials, but few studies have been conducted under natural conditions. In this work, pharmaceutical removal was assessed in a pilot-scale microalgal tertiary wastewater treatment in real conditions. Even after secondary treatment, the water contained measurable amounts of pharmaceuticals (an average of 218.4 ng/L) that significantly decreased to 39.83 ng/L at the exit of the microalgal system. Pharmaceuticals’ average removal rates were slightly higher in the summer (79.1%) than in autumn (71.1%). Antibiotics and antipsychotics were better removed (88.8 and 86.4%, respectively) than antihypertensives (75.3%) and others (Bezafibrate and Diclofenac; 64.0%). Physicochemical characteristics of the wastewater influenced pharmaceutical removal; significant positive correlations were observed between anti-hypertensive drug removal and ammonium concentration (r = 0.53; p < 0.05), total nitrogen and total pharmaceutical removal (r = 0.46; p < 0.05), and total nitrogen and antipsychotic drug removal (r = 0.47; p < 0.05). The results demonstrate the effectiveness of microalgal tertiary treatment in the removal of pharmaceuticals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Contaminants in Environment)

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Open AccessArticle

Pharmaceuticals in Coastal Waters: An UHPLC-TOF-MS Multi-Residue Approach

and

Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(10), 5975; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13105975 - 12 May 2023

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Abstract

Anthropogenic chemical contamination represents a key stressor of natural environments with pharmaceuticals comprising a particular group of emerging pollutants with the potential to induce biological responses in non-target organisms. Therefore, an analytical method based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-TOF-MS) was developed for estuarine and seawaters, targeting 63 globally used pharmaceuticals (including amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim and venlafaxine included in the Surface Water Watch List) from 8 therapeutic groups: antibiotics, analgesic, NSAIDs, antidepressants, β-blockers, lipid regulators, anticonvulsants and antihypertensive drugs. The method presents high selectivity and sensitivity, with the limits of detection ranging from 0.01 to 8.92 ng/L and the limits of quantification from 0.02 to 29.73 ng/L. Considering precision, the highest value was achieved for amoxicillin (20.9%) and the lower for ofloxacin (2.6%), while recoveries ranged from 80.6 to 112.6%. Overall, the quantification method was highly efficient for multi-residues quantification in such complex environmental samples. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Contaminants in Environment)

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Open AccessArticle

Occurrence and Degradation of Free and Conjugated Estrogens in a River Receiving Feedlot Animal Discharge

and

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 11961; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122311961 - 23 Nov 2022

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Abstract

This study analyzed concentrations of 17β-estradiol (E2), estrone (E1), estriol (E3), 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2), diethylstilbestrol (DES), 17β-estradiol-3-sulfate (E2-3S), estrone-3-sulfate (E1-3S), 17β-estradiol-3-glucuronide (E2-3G), and estrone-3-glucuronide (E1-3G) in river water, received from intensive feedlot operations wastewater in WuLo Creek, Taiwan. Moreover, the estrogen degradation in situ was analyzed. The average concentrations were 54.15 ± 31.42, 9.71 ± 6.42 and 3.55 ± 2.41 ng/L for E1, E2 and E3, respectively. The concentrations and order were similar to the polluted river and higher than most rivers’ concentrations. The conjugated estrogen concentrations ranged from ND to 13.2 ng/L (E1-3S), ND to 10.4 ng/L (E2-3S), ND to 10.0 ng/L (E1-3G), and ND to 3.6 ng/L (E2-3G), and the detection rates were 76%, 71%, 56%, and 15%, respectively. In the present study, the high detection rates of conjugate estrogen were more elevated than the water receiving STP effluent, suggesting that the source was the river water close to the animal wastewater discharge. In the degradation test, the DES concentrations slightly declined after 24 h, but E1-3G did not significantly change over time (p > 0.05). The degradation of free estrogen occurred during the first 12 h period, and residual concentration was not further decreased after 24 h. In the environment, E1 had higher concentrations than E2 and E3, suggesting that E1 was more resistant to degradation than E2 and E3 at low concentrations. However, the degradation test in the present study suggested that E1 rapidly degraded at high ambient concentrations due to the high degradation constant. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Contaminants in Environment)

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