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Environmental Chemistry of Emerging Contaminants and Their Anatomic Pathology Implications: From Molecular Perturbation to Tissue Lesions and Organ Dysfunction
Summary
This review pulls together existing research to show how everyday contaminants like microplastics, "forever chemicals" (PFAS), and drug residues—now found in our air, water, food, and even body tissues—can actually damage cells and organs, leading to problems like inflammation, scarring, and in some cases, cancer-related changes. It matters because these substances are nearly impossible to avoid, and this paper argues we need better tools to connect environmental exposure directly to real, measurable harm in the body, not just theoretical risk.
Environmental contamination has evolved beyond traditional pollutants to include a growing class of emerging contaminants such as microplastics, nanoplastics, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pharmaceutical residues, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. These contaminants are increasingly detected in air, water, food systems, wildlife, and human tissues. While environmental chemistry has extensively characterized their occurrence, persistence, transport, and transformation, their pathological consequences remain fragmented across disciplines. This review integrates environmental chemistry with anatomic pathology by examining how emerging contaminants induce cellular and tissue-level lesions that culminate in organ dysfunction. Particular emphasis is placed on contaminant fate, bioaccumulation, oxidative stress induction, inflammatory signaling, endocrine disruption, immune dysregulation, and epigenetic modifications. Histopathological manifestations, including fibrosis, necrosis, cellular degeneration, chronic inflammation, hyperplasia, and neoplastic transformation, are discussed across major organ systems. Current evidence from human biomonitoring studies and experimental animal investigations is critically evaluated. The review highlights the need for pathology-informed environmental risk assessment frameworks and proposes future directions integrating toxicopathology, exposomics, and environmental surveillance.