Table Of ContentEmerging Contaminants and Associated Treatment Technologies
Toqeer Ahmed
Muhammad Zaffar Hashmi Editors
Hazardous
Environmental
Micro-pollutants,
Health Impacts and
Allied Treatment
Technologies
Emerging Contaminants and Associated
Treatment Technologies
Series Editors
Muhammad Zaffar Hashmi, COMSATS University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Vladimir Strezov, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Emerging Contaminants and Associated Treatment Technologies focuses on
contaminant matrices (air, land, water, soil, sediment), the nature of pollutants
(emerging, well-known, persistent, e-waste, nanomaterials, etc.), health effects
(e.g., toxicology, occupational health, infectious diseases, cancer), treatment
technologies (bioremediation, sustainable waste management, low cost
technologies), and issues related to economic development and policy. The book
series includes current, comprehensive texts on critical national and regional
environmental issues of emerging contaminants useful to scientists in academia,
industry, planners, policy makers and governments from diverse disciplines. The
knowledge captured in this series will assist in understanding, maintaining and
improving the biosphere in which we live. The scope of the series includes
monographs, professional books and graduate textbooks, edited volumes and books
devoted to supporting education on environmental pollution at the graduate and
post-graduate levels.
More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/16185
Toqeer Ahmed • Muhammad Zaffar Hashmi
Editors
Hazardous Environmental
Micro-pollutants,
Health Impacts and Allied
Treatment Technologies
Editors
Toqeer Ahmed Muhammad Zaffar Hashmi
CCRD Department of Chemistry
COMSATS University Islamabad COMSATS University Islamabad
Islamabad, Pakistan Islamabad, Pakistan
ISSN 2524-6402 ISSN 2524-6410 (electronic)
Emerging Contaminants and Associated Treatment Technologies
ISBN 978-3-030-96522-8 ISBN 978-3-030-96523-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96523-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2022
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Preface
Environmental micropollutants are a diverse group in the form of microbes, organic
pollutants, and air/dust particles present in all media causing serious environmental
and health issues. Microbes in the form of bacteria, viruses, protozoan, and fungi
produce toxins in the environment and food, causing harm to the human beings.
Similarly, other micropollutants in the form of dust particles, allergens/pollens, and
spores, which are present in the environment, are threats to human health, affecting
both indoor and outdoor air quality. Micropollutants present in different form and in
different environments/media, such as soil, air, and water, may pose serious hazards
to people working in them. Organic pollutants in the form of polyaromatic hydro-
carbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, DDT, organochlorine pesticides, hormones,
and pesticides present in the soil and inorganic in the heavy metals causing serious
issues to human food chain. Mycotoxins produced by certain types of fungi and
bacteria contaminate different types of human and animal food and pose serious
threat to life.
Climate change is not only impacting livelihood but also changing life/disease
cycle, reproduction, and incidence of disease from pollutants along with huge
impact on precious resources, such as water and food, and the environment.
Similarly, infectious diseases caused by micropollutants are impacted by climate
change both in positive and negative ways. Different factors like socioeconomic,
urbanization, population density, land use, sanitation, and hygiene highly contribute
to spreading infectious diseases caused by micropollutants. So, it is important to
address all aspects of environmental micropollutants causing hazards to
human health.
In this book, basic concepts along with the advances in research related to envi-
ronmental micropollutants and treatment technologies to cope with the issues/haz-
ards have been discussed in detail. Different chapters of this book provide detail of
hazardous environmental micropollutants in different media like air, water, and soil
and methods to deal with the hazards caused. Policy- and economy-related issues
have been discussed in part. Antibiotics are undoubtedly one of the most effective
drugs being utilized for animal and human therapy. They are not only used for pre-
venting and treating different infectious diseases in animals and humans but also
v
vi Preface
used for agricultural and farming purposes. There is an increasing concern over the
past years about the effects of disposal and irrational use of antibiotics on both envi-
ronment and human health. Environmental media, which include air, soil, and water,
act both as a transmission medium and reservoir for antibiotic resistant bacteria.
This most important aspect has been covered in detail. Health hazards in the form
of toxic gases caused by burning of plastic waste and possible cohesive approaches
for the remediation of plastic waste are discussed. Mycotoxins and aerial fungal
spores and their human health impacts have been discussed. Other topics in this
book include allied treatment technologies for the remediation of environmental
micropollutants, which are discussed in depth.
Mostly knowledge provided in this book is updated and advanced level and
should be of interest to graduate level students, early career researchers and scien-
tists working in different domains and dealing with micropollutants and their toxic
impacts like, mycotoxins, organic and inorganic pollutants, infectious diseases etc.
We hope this book can be recommended for the students of environmental sciences
and as reference book for courses like environment and health, poverty and environ-
ment etc.
Islamabad, Pakistan Toqeer Ahmed
Muhammad Zaffar Hashmi
Contents
1 Environmental Micropollutants and Their Impact on
Human Health with Special Focus on Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Bushra Gul, Muhammad Kamran Naseem, Waqar-un-Nisa Malik,
Ali Raza Gurmani, Ayaz Mehmood, and Mazhar Rafique
2 Infectious Diseases, Challenges, and Their Impacts on
Human Health Under Changing Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Toqeer Ahmed, Faridullah, and Rashida Kanwal
3 Marble Dust as an Environmental and Occupational Hazard . . . . . . 37
Salma Khalid, Mohsina Haq, and Zia-Ul-Ain Sabiha
4 Environmental Degradation and Micro- pollutants in Light of
Environmental Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Furqan Mahmud Butt, Umair Bin Nisar, and Toqeer Ahmed
5 Impacts of Micro Pollutants on Human Health and
Enumerating the Environmental Refinement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Muhammad Nawaz and Sheikh Saeed Ahmad
6 Emerging Organic Contaminants, Pharmaceuticals and
Personal Care Products (PPCPs): A Threat to Water Quality . . . . . . 105
Bashir Ahmad and Muhammad Imran
7 Environmental and Health Effects of Heavy Metals and
Their Treatment Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Hajira Haroon, Muhammad Rizwan, and Naveed Ahmed
8 Organophosphates’ Pollution Status and Their Remediation
Through Microbial Interaction in the Twenty-First Century . . . . . . . 177
Saliha Ahmad, Shazmin, Mazhar Rafique, Fawad Ali,
Muhammad Farooq Hussain Munis, Syed Waqas Hassan,
Tariq Sultan, Tariq Javed, and Hassan Javed Chaudhary
vii
viii Contents
9 Toxic Organic Micropollutants and Associated Health Impacts . . . . 205
Muhammad Ijaz, Toqeer Ahmed, and Alishbah Iftikhar Ahmad
10 Impact of Aerial Fungal Spores on Human Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Sadia Alam, Maryam Nisar, Syeda Asma Bano, and Toqeer Ahmad
11 Health Risks Associated with Arsenic Contamination and Its
Biotransformation Mechanisms in Environment: A Review . . . . . . . 241
Muhammad Hamza, Sadia Alam, Muhammad Rizwan, and Alia Naz
12 Mycotoxins in Environment and Its Health Implications . . . . . . . . . . 289
Sadia Alam, Sobia Nisa, and Sajeela Daud
13 Antibiotics: Multipronged Threat to Our Environment . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Muhammad Zeeshan Hyder, Saniya Amjad, Muhammad Shafiq,
Sadia Mehmood, Sajid Mehmood, Asim Mushtaq,
and Toqeer Ahmed
14 Remediation of Plastic Waste Through Cohesive Approaches . . . . . . 337
Bibi Saima Zeb, Qaisar Mahmood, Haleema Zeb Abbasi,
and Tahseen Zeb
15 Treatment Technologies for the Environmental Micro-pollutant . . . . 365
Ayesha Ayub and Sheikh Saeed Ahmad
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Chapter 1
Environmental Micropollutants and Their
Impact on Human Health with Special
Focus on Agriculture
Bushra Gul, Muhammad Kamran Naseem, Waqar-un-Nisa Malik,
Ali Raza Gurmani, Ayaz Mehmood, and Mazhar Rafique
Abstract Micropollutants (MPs) are key contaminants present in the soil, water,
and environment. They vary based on natural properties and classified as organic
(polychlorinated biphenyls, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, organochlorine pesticides,
DDT, hormones, EDC, pesticides) to inorganic (heavy metals). They enter the soil-
water- environment system through variable sources that include irrigation water to
agricultural system, disposal of expired pharmaceuticals, bio-solids or animal
excreta, sewerage wastewater, fertilizer application, industrialization, etc. They fur-
ther enter into the food system via a number of entry points such as groundwater,
agricultural soil, irrigated water, etc. and become part of the food chain.
Micropollutants largely impact the human health by triggering thyroid disorders,
neurodevelopmental dysfunctions in children, endocrine-associated malignancies,
and metabolic and bone abnormalities. Soil acts as an ultimate host for all such pol-
lutants where soil microbes degrade them biologically, addition of chemical inputs
can accelerate degradation, while use of physical approaches in remediating MPs is
costly. These MPs damage soil quality and soil microbial diversity, alter various soil
biogeochemical processes, and induce genetic changes in the microbial ecology.
Persistence of the MPs makes them more vulnerable for human health as they enter
the food chain. Phytoremediation is considered a proven technology to remediate
MPs in soil and multiple types of hyperaccumulator plants are used in remediation.
Developing nations do not yet have access to discharge limitations for new MPs into
the environment. This requires attention so that limitations may be set based on
scientific evidence.
B. Gul
Department of Biosciences, University of Wah, Wah Cantt, Punjab, Pakistan
M. K. Naseem · Waqar-un-Nisa Malik · A. R. Gurmani · A. Mehmood · M. Rafique (*)
Department of Soil & Climate Sciences, Faculty of Basic and Applied Sciences,
The University of Haripur, Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
e-mail: [email protected]
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 1
T. Ahmed, M. Z. Hashmi (eds.), Hazardous Environmental Micro-pollutants,
Health Impacts and Allied Treatment Technologies, Emerging Contaminants and
Associated Treatment Technologies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96523-5_1
