| WHY DO WE NEED TO ADDRESS EMERGING SUBSTANCES ? |
‘Emerging pollutants’ can be defined as pollutants that are currently not included in routine monitoring programmes at the European level and which may be candidates for future regulation, depending on research on their (eco)toxicity, potential health effects, public perception and on monitoring data regarding their occurrence in the various environmental compartments.
Emerging pollutants are not necessarily new chemicals. They are pollutants that have often long been present in the environment (but whose presence and significance are only now being elucidated). One of the key responsibilities of environmental policies is to minimise existing, and prevent future, exposure risks from previously unrecognised and unexpected chemicals. This is confirmed by the European Environment & Health Strategy and its Action Plan, which mentions ‘the need to implement a mechanism for identifying and addressing new risks to health as they emerge’.
NORMAN has identified a list of the today. Examples of this list are surfactants, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and other related petrol additives and their degradation products, polar pesticides and their degradation products and various proven or suspected endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs). Another example is nanoparticles, which behave aerodynamically like gas molecules and have a large surface area per unit mass.