Emerging Chemical Contaminants: How Chemical Development Outpaces Impact Assessment

The term “emerging contaminants” is used both to describe substances that have been recently identified in the environment, as well as substances previously identified and quantified but for which new information related to health effects, persistence and/or prevalence has been discovered. Examples of such substances include pharmaceuticals and personal care products, perfluorinated compounds and endocrine disrupting chemicals. Using these classes of compounds, as well as other contaminants of emerging concern as examples, the changing regulatory environment and advances in analytical methodologies in recent decades are reviewed and discussed in the context of the implications for water sustainability.