Papers

61,005 results
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Systematic Review Tier 1

Emerging and traditional contaminants in water resources: a review from the perspective of the American continent

This systematic review examines emerging contaminants in water resources across the Americas, including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products. The findings show that current water treatment systems are often inadequate for removing these pollutants, meaning people may be exposed to microplastics and other harmful substances through their drinking water.

2025 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging Contaminants in Water: Detection, Treatment, and Regulation

This review covers emerging contaminants in water — including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals — discussing detection methods, treatment technologies, and regulatory frameworks. The authors highlight major gaps in current water quality standards and the need for updated regulations to address these newer pollutants.

2021 Water 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Overview of African water resources contamination by contaminants of emerging concern

This review documented contamination of African water resources by pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, pesticides, PFAS, and microplastics across all five continental regions, finding widespread contamination even in rural and groundwater sources. The authors highlighted major gaps in monitoring infrastructure and treatment capacity needed to protect African populations from these emerging contaminants.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 55 citations
Article Tier 2

A Current Review of Water Pollutants in American Continent: Trends and Perspectives in Detection, Health Risks, and Treatment Technologies

This review surveys water pollution across the American continent, covering heavy metals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and emerging contaminants including microplastics. The authors found a wide diversity of pollutants affecting water bodies throughout the region, with treatment solutions needing to be tailored to local conditions. The review emphasizes that water treatment facilities must be designed to address the specific mix of contaminants present, including the growing challenge of microplastic pollution.

2023 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 62 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Pollutants and Contaminants of Emerging Concern: An African Perspective

This review examines contaminants of emerging concern in Africa — including pharmaceuticals, plastics, pesticides, and personal care products — documenting their presence in sediments, sludge, drinking water, and surface water across the continent. The authors highlight growing evidence of ecotoxicological impacts and call for stronger monitoring and regulatory responses in African contexts.

2021 Journal La Lifesci 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Policy and Governance of Emerging Contaminants in Drinking Water: A Comparative Analysis of Global Regulations and Remediation Strategies

This review compares how different countries and international bodies regulate emerging contaminants in drinking water, including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Researchers found significant gaps and inconsistencies between regulatory frameworks, with many countries lacking specific standards for these newer pollutants. The study calls for more harmonized global policies and investments in advanced water treatment technologies to address these growing threats to drinking water safety.

2025 Path of Science 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Global Occurrence and Impact of Emerging Contaminants in Drinking Water: A Comparative Analysis of Environmental and Health Effects

This comparative analysis reviews the global occurrence of emerging drinking water contaminants — including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, microplastics, and PFAS — across different regions and evaluates their associated health and environmental risks.

2025 International Journal of Science Architecture Technology and Environment
Review Tier 2

Emerging contaminants in the water bodies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA): A critical review

This review surveys emerging contaminants in water bodies across the Middle East and North Africa region, including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, and microplastics. Researchers found that data on these contaminants is sparse and unevenly distributed across the region, with some countries having almost no monitoring data. The study emphasizes the urgent need for comprehensive water quality monitoring programs to assess the environmental and health risks posed by these pollutants in MENA water resources.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 146 citations
Article Tier 2

Pollutants of Emerging Concern in Urban Wastewater Impacted Aquatic Environments and Management Recommendations

This review identifies pharmaceuticals, microplastics, endocrine disruptors, and other emerging pollutants in urban wastewater-impacted African waterways, highlighting inadequate treatment infrastructure and recommending management strategies to protect aquatic ecosystems and public health.

2022 Environmental sciences 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Emergence of microplastics in African environmental drinking water sources: A review on sources, analysis and treatment strategies

This review examines microplastic contamination of drinking water sources across Africa, identifying entry pathways linked to uncontrolled plastic imports, poor waste management, and limited water treatment infrastructure. The authors highlight the need for more African-specific research on microplastic fate in water systems and call for improved treatment strategies appropriate for resource-limited settings.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Global Regulations on Emerging Contaminants

This review surveys global regulations on emerging contaminants in water and soils, finding that international and national frameworks are beginning to address microplastics, PFAS, and pharmaceuticals but that regulatory coverage remains incomplete and enforcement inconsistent across jurisdictions.

2025
Article Tier 2

Science-Based Policy Recommendations for Managing Emerging Pollutants: Protecting Water Quality for the Health of People and the Environment

This review provided science-based policy recommendations for managing emerging water pollutants, with particular focus on microplastics, PFAS, and pharmaceuticals—identifying the regulatory gap between scientific evidence and current water quality frameworks and calling for harmonized international standards to protect human and ecosystem health.

2025 Advances in water security
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution in aquatic environments in Africa: status and research opportunities

This review examines the status of microplastic pollution research in African aquatic environments, noting that Africa's high rate of plastic waste mismanagement has resulted in widespread contamination of freshwater and marine ecosystems. Researchers found significant research gaps in the region despite its outsized contribution to global plastic pollution, and identified opportunities for expanded monitoring given microplastics' capacity to adsorb persistent organic pollutants.

2022 Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science 2 citations
Article Tier 2

A comprehensive review of emerging contaminants in water sources

This comprehensive review examines the origins and environmental significance of emerging contaminants in water sources, including pharmaceuticals, microplastics, endocrine disruptors, and PFAS chemicals. Researchers found that these persistent pollutants exhibit complex behaviors in aquatic systems and pose threats to both ecosystem and human health. The study highlights the need for advanced monitoring and treatment technologies to address the growing challenge of emerging contaminant pollution in water supplies.

2024 International Journal of Advanced Chemistry 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Introduction—Emerging Pollutants in Water: Threats, Challenges, and Research Needs

This review examines contaminants of emerging concern in water, including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and endocrine-disrupting compounds, that are not adequately addressed by current water treatment and regulation. These pollutants enter water through wastewater, industrial discharge, and agricultural runoff and persist in the environment. The authors call for better monitoring and innovative treatment strategies to protect human health and water resources.

2025 Advances in water security 5 citations
Review Tier 2

Microplastic pollution in African countries’ water systems: a review on findings, applied methods, characteristics, impacts, and managements

This review synthesizes findings on microplastic pollution in water systems across African countries, highlighting methodological approaches, particle characteristics, sources, and impacts, while noting the limited but growing body of African microplastic research.

2021 SN Applied Sciences 75 citations
Article Tier 2

Understanding emerging contaminants in water and wastewater: A comprehensive review on detection, impacts, and solutions

This review covers emerging contaminants in water including pharmaceuticals, PFAS, microplastics, and nanomaterials that escape conventional water treatment and persist in the environment. It evaluates advanced detection techniques and newer treatment methods such as membrane filtration, advanced oxidation, and bioremediation to address these pollutants that pose ongoing risks to public health.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent Developments in Emerging Contaminants Determination and Treatment Technologies

This review covers recent advances in detecting and treating emerging contaminants in water, including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and endocrine disruptors, summarizing the most promising analytical and treatment technologies.

2022 Separations 6 citations
Article Tier 2

A review on occurrence of emerging pollutants in waters of the MENA region

Researchers reviewed available data on emerging pollutants — including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and microplastics — in water sources across the Middle East and North Africa, finding 57 cases where concentrations exceeded international safety thresholds. The review reveals major data gaps for many countries and highlights that current treatment processes in the region frequently fail to remove these contaminants.

2021 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 60 citations
Review Tier 2

A Review of Global Occurrence of Emerging Pollutants in Wastewater: Present Status, Source/Pathway, Extraction and Detection Techniques

This review surveyed global occurrence data for emerging pollutants — including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and PFAS — in wastewater from 1998 to 2021, examining detection methods and contamination levels. The review highlights that many of these compounds are inadequately regulated and poorly removed by conventional wastewater treatment, allowing them to persist in water systems.

2023 Asian Journal of Current Research 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging pollutants in the environment: A challenge for water resource management

This review surveys emerging pollutants in aquatic environments, including pharmaceuticals, microplastics, nanoparticles, and industrial chemicals that are not commonly monitored in water treatment. Researchers found that over 700 such substances have been identified across 22 countries, many of which persist through conventional water treatment processes. The study emphasizes the urgent need for updated monitoring frameworks and advanced treatment technologies to address these widespread but largely unregulated contaminants.

2015 International Soil and Water Conservation Research 1077 citations
Article Tier 2

Consideration of emerging environmental contaminants in africa: Review of occurrence, formation, fate, and toxicity of plastic particles

This review examined the occurrence of micro- and nanoplastics in African environments, covering contamination across aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric matrices. It highlighted that despite Africa's significant contribution to global plastic pollution, monitoring data from the continent remain sparse relative to Europe and North America.

2020 Scientific African 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in African ecosystems: Current knowledge, abundance, associated contaminants, techniques, and research needs

This review synthesized current knowledge on microplastic abundance, associated contaminants, and ecological effects in African ecosystems, a region that ranks among the highest in mismanaged plastic waste. Despite the scale of the problem, the review found insufficient environmental monitoring data from Africa, calling for continent-specific research to support accurate global risk assessments.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 189 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging Contaminants in Drinking Water

This review examined emerging contaminants in drinking water, including microplastics, pharmaceutical residues, and disinfection byproducts, assessing their occurrence, treatment removal efficiencies, and implications for human health.

2024 1 citations