Evaluating the impact of exposure to emerging contaminants on human health

Emerging contaminants (ECs) lack extensive toxicological data and regulatory guidelines. They are not monitored in aquatic bodies to determine water quality. There are over 12 different classes of ECs, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) being reported extensively in current times. Exposure to ECs, even at minuscule concentrations, results in long-term health consequences. An exposure assessment is required to assess and compare the influence of the ECs on human and ecological health. This chapter presents a detailed framework for conducting human health risk study separately for the pharmaceutically active compounds (PhAC) present in the water bodies. A case study of an Indian river has been examined that focuses on detecting multiple ECs and assessing their impact on human health, using different approaches. This study analyses the health risk of five PhACs: Fluconazole, Ciprofloxacin, Voriconazole, Cetirizine, and Moxifloxacin in the Musi river. Risk assessment results show that Fluconazole poses the highest risk (18,276.71 for adults and 8598.9 for children) and Moxifloxacin the lowest, 8.07 in adults and 3.8 in children. All five compounds posed risk, whose numerical values exceeded the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) limits. Results from the probabilistic approach show that even the minimum risk values were three orders of magnitude greater than the acceptable limit of one.