Emerging Organic Contaminants

The global exponential growth of anthropogenic activities and natural processes has resulted in notorious, widespread emerging organic contaminants (EOCs), which end up in various ecosystems, including soil. These include a wide range of actions that mankind engages in, which greatly influence life, such as industrialization, urbanization, deforestation, agriculture, and physical, chemical, and biological processes. Emerging contaminants have, therefore, become widespread and persistent in environmental spheres. EOCs include pharmaceuticals and personal care products, pesticides, hormones, surfactants, flame retardants and plasticizers, endocrine disruptors, microplastics, antibiotics, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances among others. These enormously percolate into the soil and sediment ecosystems, posing increasing environmental threats for ecosystems through their pathways in the bioaccumulation and biotransformation mechanisms. Therefore, they biotransform into the food chain, thus affecting human and animal well-being such as endocrine disruption and cellular damage. This renders human ill health concerns and environmental threats, especially ecological safety. This chapter overviews the current EOCs in the environment, their physical–chemical properties, presence in soil, toxicological potential, detection and analysis such as high-performance liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, remediation methods including biological, chemical, and physical, and their challenges as well as present technology advancement trends such as the use of simulations and artificial intelligence for optimized detection and analysis performance. Finally summarizes conclusion and future outlook.