Topic: Risk Assessment and Efficient Remediation of Typical Emerging Contaminants

Emerging contaminants (ECs), including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, industrial chemicals, endocrine disruptors, and microplastics, pose critical global environmental threats. Their pervasive presence, persistence, bioaccumulation potential, transformation products, and complex mixture effects create significant, often poorly understood risks to ecosystems and human health, despite typically low individual concentrations. Conventional treatment processes frequently fail to prevent their entry into the environment.

Addressing this challenge requires two key approaches: First, robust risk assessment methodologies are urgently needed to characterize EC exposure pathways, ecotoxicological impacts, and long-term health implications. Second, efficient remediation technologies are paramount for mitigating contamination. Conventional water, wastewater, and soil treatment strategies are often inadequate for the diverse and recalcitrant nature of many ECs, necessitating innovative, targeted, and sustainable removal or destruction solutions.

This Special Issue, "Risk Assessment and Efficient Remediation of Typical Emerging Contaminants," compiles cutting-edge research addressing these dual imperatives. We invite contributions on: advanced detection, monitoring, and comprehensive risk assessment of priority ECs; development, optimization, and mechanistic understanding of novel physical, chemical, biological, and hybrid remediation technologies; degradation pathways, by-product toxicity, and treatment efficiency under realistic conditions; and assessments of environmental sustainability and scalability. This collection aims to advance science and provide actionable insights for managing EC risks.

Emerging Contaminants; Environmental Risk Assessment; Remediation Technologies; Water Treatment; Pollutant Degradation