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Emerging contaminants

Studies on emerging contaminants have “emerged” around the turn of the millennium and have become the focus of much research effort in environmental sciences. This thematic series was devoted to the environmental chemistry of emerging contaminants. Emerging contaminants can be considered as those contaminants that have appeared only recently but would be better named as contaminants of emerging concerns. Many emerging contaminants have been in the environment for a while but concerns over their presence and potential impact have been raised much more recently. Finally, we also expanded the theme to include emerging issues about more traditional contaminants (so as to also tackle new facts or information which shed a new perspective on the problems associated with well-known villains).

Editor: Prof Sébastien Sauvé


  1. A review is presented of how one defines emerging contaminants and what can be included in that group of contaminants which is preferably termed “contaminants of emerging concern”. An historical perspective is...

    Authors: Sébastien Sauvé and Mélanie Desrosiers
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2014 8:15
  2. The increased use of veterinary antibiotics in modern agriculture for therapeutic uses and growth promotion has raised concern regarding the environmental impacts of antibiotic residues in soil and water. The ...

    Authors: Stacia R Wegst-Uhrich, Divina AG Navarro, Lisa Zimmerman and Diana S Aga
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2014 8:5
  3. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of environmental persistent organic pollutants, which can be metabolized into a series of metabolites, including hydroxylated metabolites (OH-PCBs) in biota. Ninete...

    Authors: Guangshu Zhai, Xianai Wu, Hans-Joachim Lehmler and Jerald L Schnoor
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2013 7:183
  4. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have numerous industrial applications and may be released to the environment. In the aquatic environment, pristine or functionalized CNT have different dispersion behavior, potentially l...

    Authors: Petra Jackson, Nicklas Raun Jacobsen, Anders Baun, Renie Birkedal, Dana Kühnel, Keld Alstrup Jensen, Ulla Vogel and Håkan Wallin
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2013 7:154
  5. Sucralose has gained popularity as a low calorie artificial sweetener worldwide. Due to its high stability and persistence, sucralose has shown widespread occurrence in environmental waters, at concentrations ...

    Authors: Sudha Rani Batchu, Natalia Quinete, Venkata R Panditi and Piero R Gardinali
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2013 7:141
  6. The widespread utilization of organic compounds in modern society and their dispersion through wastewater have resulted in extensive contamination of source and drinking waters. The vast majority of these comp...

    Authors: Tarun Anumol, Sylvain Merel, Bradley O Clarke and Shane A Snyder
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2013 7:104
  7. This study investigated the oxidation of selected progestagenic steroid hormones by potassium permanganate at pH 6.0 and 8.0 in ultrapure water and wastewater effluents, using bench-scale assays. Second order ...

    Authors: Paul B Fayad, Arash Zamyadi, Romain Broseus, Michèle Prévost and Sébastien Sauvé
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2013 7:84
  8. Knowledge about silver nanoparticles in soils is limited even if soils are a critical pathway for their environmental fate. In this paper, speciation results have been acquired using a silver ion selective ele...

    Authors: Rachel Benoit, Kevin J Wilkinson and Sébastien Sauvé
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2013 7:75
  9. The discharge of complex mixtures of nutrients, organic micropollutants, and antibiotic resistance genes from treated municipal wastewater into freshwater systems are global concerns for human health and aquat...

    Authors: Julie C Anderson, Jules C Carlson, Jennifer E Low, Jonathan K Challis, Charles S Wong, Charles W Knapp and Mark L Hanson
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2013 7:54
  10. Manufactured silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most commonly used nanomaterials in consumer goods and consequently their concentrations in wastewater and hence wastewater treatment plants are predict...

    Authors: Casey L Doolette, Mike J McLaughlin, Jason K Kirby, Damien J Batstone, Hugh H Harris, Huoqing Ge and Geert Cornelis
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2013 7:46
  11. The fate of 14 antidepressants along with their respective N-desmethyl metabolites and the anticonvulsive drug carbamazepine was examined in a primary sewage treatment plant (STP) and following advanced treatment...

    Authors: André Lajeunesse, Mireille Blais, Benoît Barbeau, Sébastien Sauvé and Christian Gagnon
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2013 7:15
  12. In vivo estimations of Pb particle bioavailability are costly and variable, because of the nature of animal assays. The most feasible alternative for increasing the number of investigations carried out on Pb part...

    Authors: Elise Deshommes, Robert Tardif, Marc Edwards, Sébastien Sauvé and Michèle Prévost
    Citation: Chemistry Central Journal 2012 6:138