Papers

61,005 results
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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

Emerging Contaminants in waste Water: Detection, and Treatment Innovations

This review covers emerging contaminants in wastewater—including pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, microplastics, and antibiotic resistance genes—examining their sources, detection methods using advanced analytical tools, and cutting-edge treatment innovations.

2025 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
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

Emerging contaminants – general aspects: sources, substances involved, and quantification

This review covers a range of emerging environmental contaminants — including microplastics in water bodies, pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, and medical-use metals — discussing their sources, harmful effects, and detection methods. It provides useful context for understanding how microplastics fit into the broader landscape of modern chemical pollution threatening human and ecosystem health.

2023 Applied Spectroscopy Reviews 12 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

Microplastic analysis in urban areas and their impact on quality of life

Researchers reviewed the growing threat of microplastic pollution to biodiversity and human health, focusing on freshwater systems as a key exposure pathway. The study emphasizes the need for standardized identification methods for microplastics in freshwater environments.

2025 Springer Link (Chiba Institute of Technology)
Article Tier 2

Medical Household Waste as a Potential Environmental Hazard: An Ecological and Epidemiological Approach

Researchers investigated household pharmaceutical waste disposal practices and analyzed drug residues in water bodies near Mexico's largest urban population, identifying frequently detected medications and assessing associated environmental and health risks.

2023 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Detection and removal of microplastics in wastewater: evolution and impact

This review covers methods for detecting and removing microplastics from wastewater, which is a major pathway for microplastics to enter the environment. Microplastics in water can carry heavy metals, disease-causing organisms, and chemical additives, and are eventually consumed by aquatic life that enters the human food chain. The authors emphasize that better wastewater treatment technology is needed to reduce human exposure to microplastics through water and seafood.

2021 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 257 citations
Article Tier 2

Pharmaceutical and Recreational Drug Usage Patterns during and Post COVID-19 Determined by Wastewater-Based Epidemiology

This study used wastewater analysis in Latvia to track changes in pharmaceutical and recreational drug use during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, finding increased consumption of antidepressants, psychiatric drugs, and painkillers during lockdowns. While not about microplastics, the research demonstrates how wastewater monitoring can reveal population-level health trends. The same wastewater-based approach is being used to track microplastic levels in sewage systems and understand community-wide exposure.

2024 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Which\nMicropollutants in Water Environments Deserve\nMore Attention Globally?

This review analyzed which organic micropollutants in water environments deserve the most global attention based on their toxicity, occurrence frequency, and persistence. Microplastics are among the contaminants considered, alongside pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals that routinely escape conventional water treatment and accumulate in aquatic ecosystems.

2021 Figshare
Article Tier 2

Which\nMicropollutants in Water Environments Deserve\nMore Attention Globally?

This review analyzed which organic micropollutants in water environments deserve the most global attention based on their toxicity, occurrence frequency, and persistence. Microplastics are among the contaminants considered, alongside pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals that routinely escape conventional water treatment and accumulate in aquatic ecosystems.

2021 Figshare
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Pollution Focused on Sources, Distribution, Contaminant Interactions, Analytical Methods, and Wastewater Removal Strategies: A Review

This review examines microplastic pollution across all environmental compartments, covering sources, distribution, contaminant interactions, analytical methods, and wastewater removal strategies. Microplastics act as vectors for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, PCBs, and PAHs, and the review discusses both the analytical challenges of detection and available treatment options.

2022 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 74 citations
Article Tier 2

Green Analytical Chemistry Strategies for Urban Wastewater Monitoring of Emerging Contaminants: a Machine Learning and Multi-technique Strategy

This study developed a green analytical chemistry strategy combining machine learning and multiple spectroscopic techniques to monitor emerging contaminants including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals in urban wastewater from Nigerian cities. The approach reduced toxic reagent use while improving detection accuracy for a wide range of contaminants.

2025 International Journal of Built Environment and Earth Science
Article Tier 2

Urine biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease: A new opportunity for wastewater-based epidemiology?

Researchers explored whether Alzheimer's disease biomarkers found in urine could be detected in wastewater to track disease trends across entire communities — a method called wastewater-based epidemiology. While promising biomarkers exist in urine, key questions about their stability and concentration in sewage must be resolved before this surveillance approach can be implemented.

2024 Environment International 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic contamination in wastewater: Sources, distribution, detection and remediation through physical and chemical-biological methods

This review covers how microplastics end up in wastewater from sources like textile fibers, personal care microbeads, and broken-down plastic debris, and how they often survive the treatment process. Current removal methods like filtration and chemical degradation are costly and not fully effective. The lack of standardized ways to measure microplastics in wastewater makes it difficult to assess the full scope of human exposure through water systems.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 118 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

Micro (nano) plastics in wastewater: A critical review on toxicity risk assessment, behaviour, environmental impact and challenges

Researchers reviewed the sources, detection methods, toxicity, environmental fate, and wastewater treatment options for micro- and nanoplastics, finding that nanoplastics are especially persistent and toxic due to their large surface area and ability to carry co-pollutants, and identifying key research gaps in quantification, degradation mechanisms, and sensor development.

2021 Chemosphere 103 citations
Review Tier 2

A review of occurrence of emerging contaminants and the advanced analytical techniques used for detection and removal of these pollutants in wastewater

This review surveys the occurrence of emerging contaminants in wastewater, including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and microplastics, and evaluates the analytical techniques used to detect and remove them. Researchers found that many of these pollutants are not yet covered by environmental regulations despite being widely detected in water systems. The study underscores the need for standardized detection methods and updated policies to address these unregulated contaminants.

2024 IWA Publishing eBooks 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic analysis in urban areas and their impact on quality of life

Researchers assessed microplastic contamination in urban water environments and evaluated its impact on community quality of life, arguing that a critical gap in standardized analytical methods is limiting progress in both research and environmental management of microplastic pollution.

2025 MATEC Web of Conferences
Article Tier 2

Paradigm shifts and current challenges in wastewater management.

This bibliometric review of global wastewater research identifies microplastics as an emerging contaminant of increasing concern in wastewater systems worldwide. The review highlights that microplastic removal from wastewater remains a major unsolved challenge and that treatment plants are currently significant pathways for microplastics entering the environment.

2020 Journal of hazardous materials
Article Tier 2

Occurrence, fate, and toxicity of emerging contaminants in a diverse ecosystem

This review examined the occurrence, fate, and toxicity of emerging contaminants including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and endocrine disruptors across diverse ecosystems, tracing their pathways from wastewater treatment systems into natural environments.

2021 Physical Sciences Reviews 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Determination of the pharmaceuticals–nano/microplastics in aquatic systems by analytical and instrumental methods

Researchers reviewed analytical and instrumental methods for detecting pharmaceutical compounds associated with nano- and microplastic particles in aquatic systems. They examined how pharmaceuticals bind to plastic particles and the combined environmental risks these mixtures pose to water sources and marine life. The study identifies gaps in current detection capabilities and calls for improved methods to assess the combined impact of these co-occurring pollutants.

2022 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 46 citations
Article Tier 2

Remediation of Emerging Pollutants by Using Advanced Biological Wastewater Treatments

This review examines advanced biological methods for removing emerging pollutants from wastewater, including pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, and microplastics. Biological treatment approaches offer sustainable and effective alternatives to conventional treatment for this increasingly complex mix of contaminants.

2021 Applied Water Science 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Consequence of COVID‐19 occurrences in wastewater with promising recognition and healing technologies: A review

This review examines COVID-19 in wastewater treatment contexts, discussing how the pandemic increased plastic and nanoplastic inputs alongside pharmaceutical and antibiotic contaminants, and evaluating emerging detection and treatment technologies for managing these compounding pollution challenges.

2022 Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy 6 citations