Over 40,000 chemicals have been identified as contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), yet prioritizing them with respect to their ecological and human health risks remains a daunting challenge. This study explored the use of waste epidemiology using sewage treatment plants as chemical observatories to conveniently identify persistent and bioaccumulative CECs, including toxic organohalogen compounds. Nationally representative samples of sewage sludge (biosolids) were analyzed for over 230 CECs, of which more than 120 were detected. The most abundant CECs in biosolids all belonged to the group of high-production volume chemicals, eight of which represented priority chemicals, including multiple flame retardants, surfactants and two antimicrobials. A comparison of chemicals detected in biological specimens representative of the United States general population from humans and in U.S. digested sewage sludge revealed a significant overlap in the occurrence of pollutants in these two environmental compartments. The observed co-occurrence of CECs in both matrices suggests that the analysis of sewage sludge, biosolids and other solid and liquid waste streams can inform human health risk assessments by providing current information on toxic exposures in human populations and associated body burdens of harmful environmental pollutants.

Waste epidemiology: Taking the chemical pulse of a nation at the sewer by example of the United States

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.