Emerging chemical contaminants in water and wastewater.

Recent advances in environmental analytical chemistry have resulted in an explosion of knowledge regarding the presence of previously undetectable chemical contaminants in water and wastewater. Many of these contaminants are anthropogenic, resulting from commercial products from human society and subsequently dispersed throughout the aquatic environment, passing between wastewater effluents, natural waters and drinking water supplies. While the environmental occurrence of these contaminants is usually very low (microgram down to subnanogram per litre), toxicologists, epidemiologists and risk assessment experts advise that there may still be significant and widespread adverse environmental and human health consequences (e.g. cancer risk and adverse reproductive development) at the observed levels. This new occurrence and environmental/human health information have raised the awareness of the global water industry, which is now assessing management practices and treatment technologies to effectively remove or destroy these contaminants. Regulators and water utility managers are also considering the most appropriate guidance and actions that will be in the best interests of the public and environmental health. This Theme Issue of the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions A brings together inter-disciplinary perspectives on this topic, which represents a current challenge to the global water industry and is likely to be a significant issue of environmental and public health concern into the future. Addressing this challenge effectively will require contributions from environmental scientists and engineers, risk assessment experts, water utility managers and practitioners, toxicologists, epidemiologists and health scientists; therefore, this Theme Issue brings together views from leading international experts in each of these fields. The impacts of endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) and hormones on aquatic life have been the focus of much research, especially over the past decade. Prof. John Sumpter of the Institute for the Environment of Brunel University (UK) reviews the impact of chemicals on aquatic organisms and presents illustrative case studies to place the environmental challenges in context. Dr Olwenn Martin and Dr Nick Voulvoulis of the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London (UK) summarize the latest views on the risks associated with oestrogenic compounds in water and wastewater and practices to manage those risks. Dr Anna Comerton and colleagues from the Department of