More than forty research papers highlight the effects of emerging contaminants on human health and the environment in the December 2006 issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology, among their number are reports on nanoparticles, pharmaceuticals, disinfectant by-products, and fluorochemicals.
“It might be tempting to define emerging contaminants as one thing or following certain criteria but it’s not that simple,” says the journal’s guest editor Jennifer Field of Oregon State University. The following Spotlight editorial reveals some of the issues and diversity of materials studied as well as highlighting a significant technology that might allow decontamination for certain materials to be carried out. An audio summary from the journal’s editors is available as an mp3 download courtesy of ES&T.
Read the full article under Intute’s Spotlight