Division: SSSA Division: Soils & Environmental Quality

Title: Environmental Fate of Chemicals of Emerging Concern - I

Lead Community Sponsor:
Cosponsor: Soil Chemistry
Community Cosponsor:
Format: Oral Topical Session
Keywords: Chemicals of Emerging Concern and Pharmaceuticals

Session Description: Over the last several decades, the scope of contaminant fate in the environment has broadened to include new classes of compounds whose impact on ecosystems and human health is often poorly understood. There is an urgent need to better understand and predict the sources, transport, and abiotic/biotic transformation pathways of these emerging contaminants in the environment to protect environmental and human health. Contaminants of interest this session include pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, endocrine disruptors, and pharmaceuticals and personal care products. The sources of these contaminants may be municipal, agricultural, and industrial wastewater. In this session, we explore recent advances in the field and welcome contributions on environmental occurrence, characterization of sources, transport pathways, fate in environmental matrices, potential impacts on human and ecological health, and new methods for emerging contaminant analyses. The knowledge base resulting from this session will be an improved understanding of the factors controlling the fate of emerging contaminants, leading to the development of effective mitigation practices and protection of environmental and human health.