Contaminants of Emerging Concern in the Environment

Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) pose new and grave challenges to public health and the health of the ecosystem on which we depend for safe water, air, soil, and food. On the horizon looms a perfect storm. The production of new chemicals stretches and often exceeds the capacity of current safety monitoring and risk assessment technologies. Population growth and expectations for improved living standards puts more demand on finite resources. As documented by U.S. Geological Survey studies of the past decade, surface, ground, and drinking waters are already significantly contaminated. The authors of this volume document the current science of CECs with important new data on the risks associated with a broad range of persistent organic pollutants. These include pharmaceutical and personal care products, natural and synthetic hormones, agricultural pesticides, perfluorinated compounds, and other organohalogens. The volume is organized in three sections: 1) environmental sources, occurrences, and fates of CECs; 2) ecotoxicological and human health risks of CECs; and 3) modeling tools, research needs and policy options for managing CECs. This organization provides a very useful terrain map of the field that will guide scientists and policy makers as they grapple with the serious problems described in each of the chapters. Recent advances in genomics and epigenomics underscore the extraordinary sensitivity of cellular structures and metabolic pathways to modification by CECs at concentrations once thought to be safe. The very qualities of stability and persistence that are desirable from a pharmacokinetic perspective, whether in drugs for human or veterinary medicine or pesticides and herbicides for agricultural use, now must be viewed as potential threats to the health of the ecosystem. The authors of this volume alert readers to issues revealed by the application of new methods of measurement. How successful we are in coping with these issues has profound implications for the health of the public.PREFACE; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; 1. INTRODUCTION TO CONTAMINANTS OF EMERGING CONCERN IN THE ENVIRONMENT: ECOLOGICAL AND HUMAN HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS; R. U. HALDEN; ENVIRONMENTAL SOURCES, OCCURRENCES, AND FATE OF CECS; 2. PHARMACEUTICAL INGREDIENTS IN DRINKING WATER: OVERVIEW OF OCCURRENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF HUMAN EXPOSURE; C. G. DAUGHTON; 3. OCCURRENCE OF PHARMACEUTICALS IN U.S. DRINKING WATER; SHANE A. SNYDER; 4. TRACE ORGANICS IN ARIZONA SURFACE AND WASTEWATERS; C. CHIU AND P. K. WESTERHOFF; 5. ILLICIT DRUGS AS EMERGING CONTAMINANTS; SARA CASTIGLIONI AND ETTORE ZUCCATO; 6. PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN SEWAGE SLUDGE: LEVELS, SOURCES, AND TRENDS; BRADLEY O. CLARKE AND NICHOLA A. PORTER; 7. U.S. EPA'S 2006-2007 TARGETED NATIONAL SEWAGE SLUDGE SURVEY; RICK STEVENS; 8. PHARMACEUTICALS AND PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS IN U.S. BIOSOLIDS; KRISTIN MCCLELLAN AND ROLF U. HALDEN; 9. REMOVING STEROIDS FROM CONTAMINATED WATERS USING RADICAL REACTIONS; STEPHEN P. MEZYK, EDSEL M. ABUD, KATY L. SWANCUTT, GARRETT MCKAY, AND DIONYSIOS D. DIONYSIOU; 10. TRANSPORT OF PPCPS AND VETERINARY MEDICINES FROM AGRICULTURAL FIELDS FOLLOWING APPLICATION OF BIOSOLIDS OR MANURE; EDWARD TOPP, CHRIS D. METCALFE, ALISTAIR B. BOXALL, AND DAVID R. LAPEN; ECOTOXICOLOGICAL AND HUMAN HEALTH RISKS OF CECS; 11. ENVIRONMENTAL FATE AND HAZARDS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL DICLOFENAC IN AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS; JESPER SVANFELT, JENNY-MARIA KALLIO, JOHAN ERIKSSON, AND LEIF KRONBERG; 12. FATE OF CAFFEINE IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECOTOXICOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS; THOMAS BRUTON, ALI ALBOLOUSHI, BELLA DE LA GARZA, BI-O. KIM, AND ROLF U. HALDEN; 13. PERFLUORINATED CHEMICALS IN DRINKING AND ENVIRONMENTAL WATERS; PAUL C. RUMSBY, WENDY F. YOUNG, TOM HALL, AND CLARE L. MCLAUGHLIN; 14. EARTHWORMS: DIAGNOSTIC INDICATORS OF WASTEWATER DERIVED ANTHROPOGENIC ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS IN TERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS; CHAD A. KINNEY, EDWARD T. FURLONG, DANA W. KOLPIN, STEVEN D. ZAUGG, MARK R. BURKHARDT, JOSEPH P. BOSSIO, AND STEPHEN L. WERNER; 15. POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS OF AMENDING AGRICULTURAL SOILS WITH BIOSOLIDS; EVELYN WALTERS AND ROLF U. HALDEN; 16. MANIFESTATION OF ECOTOXICITY IN PARTS PER TRILLION CONTAMINANT LEVELS IN NATURAL AND SIMULATED ENVIRONMENTAL SETTINGS; HANS SANDERSON AND MARTIN RUDBECK JEPSEN; 17. PRESENCE OF PHARMACEUTICALS AND PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS IN THE ENVIRONMENT - A CONCERN FOR HUMAN HEALTH?; SARA BACHMAN DUCEY AND AMIR SAPKOTA; 18. PHARMACEUTICAL AND PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND POTENTIAL RISKS OF EMERGING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE; REBECCA M. COULBORN, ERIN REES CLAYTON, AND ALLISON E. AIELLO; MODELING TOOLS, RESEARCH NEEDS, AND POLICY OPTIONS FOR MANAGING CECS; 19. EMPIRICAL MODELS FOR PREDICTING THE OCCURRENCE AND CONCENTRATION OF ORGANIC CHEMICALS IN BIOSOLIDS; RANDHIR P. DEO AND ROLF U. HALDEN; 20. COMPARING THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL AND HYDRODYNAMIC MODELING APPROACHES FOR DESCRIBING THE REJECTION OF EMERGING NONIONIC ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS BY A NANOFILTRATION MEMBRANE; CHRISTOPHER L. BELLONA AND JORG E. DREWES; 21. CONCENTRATIONS OF HYDROPHOBIC ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN U.S. WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS AND IN RECEIVING SURFACE WATERS MODELED FROM EPA BIOSOLIDS MONITORING DATA; ALEX WEIR, WILLIAM E. MOILES, BRIAN BROCKMAN, CAROLYN S. MATTICK, KRISTIN MCCLELLAN, LISA GERWE, RANDHIR P. DEO, AND ROLF U. HALDEN; 22. ASSESSMENT OF THE AQUATIC RELEASE AND RELEVANCE OF SELECTED ENDOGENOUS CHEMICALS: ANDROGENS, THYROIDS AND THEIR IN VIVO METABOLITES; USMAN KHAN AND JIM NICELL; 23. ASSESSMENT OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF TRICLOSAN TO DIOXIN EMISSIONS FROM; SLUDGE INCINERATION IN THE U.S. USING A MATHEMATICAL MODEL; K. D. DOUDRICK, D. B. JONES, T. KALINOWSKI, E. M. HARTMANN, AND R. U. HALDEN; 24. LITERATURE REVIEW OF META-ANALYSES AND POOLED ANALYSES OF DISINFECTION BY-PRODUCTS IN DRINKING WATER AND CANCER AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH OUTCOMES; MARK J. NIEUWENHUIJSEN, JAMES GRELLIER, NINA ISZATT, DAVID MARTINEZ, MD BAYZIDUR RAHMAN, AND CRISTINA M. VILLANUEVA; 25. IMPACT OF POINT-OF-USE WATER SOFTENING ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RECLAMATION: CASE STUDY OF THE GREATER PHOENIX AREA; E. N. DAUGHERTY, A. V. ONTIVEROS-VALENCIA, J. S. RICE, M. J. WIEST, AND R. U. HALDEN; 26. BIOASSAY GUIDED FRACTIONATION (TOXICITY IDENTIFICATION AND EVALUATION) FOR THE DETERMINATION OF ESTROGENIC AGENTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLES; DARYL BULLOCH, RAMON LAVADO, AND DANIEL SCHLENK; 27. FLUORINATED CHEMICALS AND THE IMPACTS OF ANTHROPOGENIC USE; D. E. C. ADAMS AND R. U. HALDEN; APPENDIX A; USMAN KHAN AND JIM NICELL; APPENDIX B; USMAN KHAN AND JIM NICELL; INDEXES; AUTHOR INDEX; SUBJECT INDEX