{"id":2054,"date":"2018-04-06T13:05:06","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T13:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arvia.development-visionsharp.co.uk\/2021\/04\/06\/stopping-micropollutants-at-their-source\/"},"modified":"2023-07-26T11:20:52","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T11:20:52","slug":"stopping-micropollutants-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arviatechnology.com\/wastewater-industry-insight\/stopping-micropollutants-at-their-source\/","title":{"rendered":"Stopping Micropollutants at their Source"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
We explain the origins of micropollutants entering the environment and how they can be prevented.<\/p>\n
Micropollutants arrive in the environment through multiple routes, but one of the main sources is wastewater from industrial processing. There are currently 100,000 commercially registered compounds in Europe and there is little in place to stop the residue from the majority of these eventually entering the water cycle.<\/p>\n
Also known as priority substances, micropollutants are present in products and processes that are part of daily life in an industrialised world \u2013 medication, personal care products, technology, clothing, pesticides and fertilisers. These substances are problematic when they have toxic, persistent and bioaccumulative properties.<\/p>\n
They are emitted in wastewater from all manner of manufacturing plants including pharmaceutical, chemical, electronics and agrochemical. Leachate from landfill sites where unprocessed waste is dumped can also be a source.<\/p>\n
Municipal treatment plants serve as centralised collection points for industrial wastewater, stormwater and domestic sewage and are in the sights of regulators seeking to diminish the impact of toxic substances on the ecosystem.<\/p>\n
Analytical techniques have vastly improved over the last decade and are increasingly detecting micropollutants in the aquatic environment down to extremely low concentrations, even one nanogram per litre. Secondary treated effluent discharged from wastewater treatment plants into receiving waters has consequently been identified as a major source of toxic substances in the environment.<\/p>\n
Existing biological wastewater treatment plants were designed prior to the development of modern analytical techniques and were not expected to remove trace levels of micropollutants. The presence of micropollutants in the environment has been linked to toxic biological effects in fish and mammals including estrogenicity, mutagenicity and genotoxicity.<\/p>\n
The feminisation of male fish is one example relating to the impact on aquatic species exposed to endocrine disrupting compounds. Another serious concern is the rise of antibiotic-resistant organisms that could affect human health.<\/p>\n