Emerging Industrial Pollutants in Wastewater: Occurrence, Environmental Fate, Toxicological Mechanisms and Treatment Strategies.

Abstract

With the accelerated industrialization, the emission of emerging pollutants has increased in aquatic systems, which poses a risk to the integrity of ecosystems, water security and human health. Examples include pharmaceuticals, PFAS, endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), synthetic dyes, industrial solvents, microplastics, engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and persistent organic pollutants (POPs), all of which are persistent, mobile, bioaccumulating, and have complex toxicity. Their industrial emissions, environmental presence, fate, and mechanism of toxicity are discussed in this review to microorganisms, aquatic organisms, wildlife, and humans. It represents a critical evaluation of the developments in high-resolution mass spectrometry, molecular methods and biosensors, chemometrics, and artificial intelligence for monitoring. The physical, chemical, biological, and hybrid treatment methods (adsorption, membrane filtration, advanced oxidation, electrochemical oxidation, bioremediation, microalgal systems, biochar, and nanotechnology) are discussed. There has been some progress, but gaps remain in the knowledge on environmental fate, environmental transformations, mixture effects, and long-term risk. Future research should be directed towards real-time monitoring and mechanistic toxicity evaluation, predictive modeling, integrated treatment, resource recovery, and sustainable environmental management.