TY - JOUR
T1 - Using national sewage sludge data for chemical ranking and prioritization
AU - Venkatesan, Arjun K.
AU - Halden, Rolf U.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported in part by Award Number R01ES020889 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and by award LTR 05/01/12 of the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the sponsors. Appendix A
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/4
Y1 - 2020/4
N2 - Treated sewage sludges (SSs) or biosolids are rich in organic carbon, nutrients, and, unfortunately, chemical contaminants. Accumulation of chemicals in SS is influenced by the mass of chemical produced and released into wastewater, resistance to (bio)degradation during treatment, and the chemicals' propensity to sorb to particulates. Hence, accumulation of chemicals in SS is indicative of their persistent and bioaccumulative behavior: the two characteristics that are predominantly used for chemical prioritization. Thus, it is possible for risk assessors to use existing SS survey data to identify, rank, and prioritize persistent and bioaccumulative chemicals present in the human society. In this review, we highlight unique papers that used this concept to help prioritizing chemical contaminants in SS and the environment. We additionally showcase a simple decision flowchart and scoring algorithm for prioritizing chemicals whose presence in SS warrants further investigation.
AB - Treated sewage sludges (SSs) or biosolids are rich in organic carbon, nutrients, and, unfortunately, chemical contaminants. Accumulation of chemicals in SS is influenced by the mass of chemical produced and released into wastewater, resistance to (bio)degradation during treatment, and the chemicals' propensity to sorb to particulates. Hence, accumulation of chemicals in SS is indicative of their persistent and bioaccumulative behavior: the two characteristics that are predominantly used for chemical prioritization. Thus, it is possible for risk assessors to use existing SS survey data to identify, rank, and prioritize persistent and bioaccumulative chemicals present in the human society. In this review, we highlight unique papers that used this concept to help prioritizing chemical contaminants in SS and the environment. We additionally showcase a simple decision flowchart and scoring algorithm for prioritizing chemicals whose presence in SS warrants further investigation.
KW - Biosolids
KW - Chemical prioritization
KW - Chemical ranking
KW - Chemical risk
KW - PBT chemicals
KW - Sewage sludge
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U2 - 10.1016/j.coesh.2019.10.006
DO - 10.1016/j.coesh.2019.10.006
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85076181032
SN - 2468-5844
VL - 14
SP - 10
EP - 15
JO - Current Opinion in Environmental Science and Health
JF - Current Opinion in Environmental Science and Health
ER -