Sean Doyle, Elaine Meade, Colin Fowley and Mary Garvey
The health effects of low level, chronic exposure to environmental contaminants include the development of anti-biotic resistance, endocrine disruption and carcinogenicity amongst other issues in aquatic, terrestrial and human species. Presently unknown quantities and mixtures of potentially hazardous compounds accumulate in the environment having severe effects on numerous species. Wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove these contaminants meaning that treated water contains an array of pollutant compounds unless they are intrinsically prone to biodegrade or have hydrophobic combinations. The impact of this continued pollution and accumulation not only threatens animal and human life, it represents a major threat to environmental sustainability having dire consequents for ecosystems. As the human population continues to expand the issues of environmental pollution, destruction of ecosystems, loss of biodiversity and soil infertility will become increasingly more prominent. This review aims to highlight key pollutants impacting on environmental and human health.
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