Emerging Micro-Pollutants in the Environment: Occurrence, Fate, and Distribution Downloaded from pubs.acs.org by 5.189.206.246 on 06/25/16. For personal use only.
Opening Remarks The importance and legitimacy of understanding emerging contaminants and their implications to human health and the environment cannot be understated. As technology advances, society benefits from the products produced, techniques innovated, and opportunities created; however, there is a flip side. There is a cost associated with today’s technology when the complete life cycle is considered. Consider for a moment, nature’s tree. No waste is produced in the production of the root system or its leaves. At the end of the tree’s lifetime, no part is non-degradable creating lasting contamination for generations to come. Today’s state of science and technology is not like the tree. How do persistent organic pollutants generated during the manufacture of man-made products affect the environment and subsequently, human health? How do the novel characteristics of the nanomaterials that provide so much benefit to society interact with environmental media and the physiology of humans? Advances in medicine produce pharmaceuticals saving literally countless lives, but what of the evolutionary adaptation by microorganisms creating antibiotic resistant-super bugs? Additionally, poor disposal practices and excretion via urinary pathways introduces pharmaceuticals to wastewater treatment facilities only to be minimally treated before discharge to natural waterways. What are the ecological consequences of these actions? Consider also the growing demand of the ever scarcer resource of drinking water. Direct water reuse is currently employed in Singapore and many other locations; indirect water reuse is growing in acceptance in the United States and will only increase in the future. How are the trace organic contaminants discharged in the wastewater effluent, (and eventually taken in as drinking water plant influent) affecting human health? What are the appropriate technologies to employ for treatment? Answers to these difficult questions require an economic and pragmatic balance. Cleaner water can be obtained but at what cost? What are the truly negative consequences of emerging contaminants and what are the positive gains afforded by implementing technology A versus technology B (versus a do-nothing approach)? Answers to these questions will require a host of actions to include public debate, appropriate regulatory action and demonstration and validation of viable treatment technologies. Increasing our knowledge of the distribution, transport, fate, and toxicological effects to the environment and human health will assist in all of these capacities. This book addresses these subjects and will be of great utility to researchers, regulators, keen members of the public, and those in the teaching profession. I hope you find it as interesting and useful as I did.
David M. Kempisty, Lt Col, Ph.D., USAF Assistant Professor Director, Environmental Engineering and Science Program Air Force Institute of Technology ix
