Reuse of Wastewater: Concerns about the Effects of Mixtures of Chemical Substances on Human Health

first_page Download PDF settings Order Article Reprints Font Type: Arial Georgia Verdana Font Size: Aa Aa Aa Line Spacing:    Column Width:    Background: Open AccessAbstract Reuse of Wastewater: Concerns about the Effects of Mixtures of Chemical Substances on Human Health † by José CabêdaJosé Cabêda SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 1,* and Carina LadeiraCarina Ladeira SciProfiles Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 2,3,4 1 Guarda Nacional Republicana, Destacamento Territorial de Vila Franca de Xira, Núcleo de Proteção Ambiental, Rua Calouste Gulbenkian, 2625-575 Vialonga, Portugal 2 H&TRCcHealth & Technology Research Center, Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa (ESTeSL), Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Avenida D. João II, lote 4.69.01, Parque das Nações, 1990-096 Lisboa, Portugal 3 NOVA National School of Public Health, Public Health Research Centre, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 1600-560 Lisbon, Portugal 4 Comprehensive Health Research Center (CHRC), 1150-082 Lisbon, Portugal * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. † Presented at the 1st International Electronic Conference on Toxics, 20–22 March 2024; Available online: https://sciforum.net/event/IECTO2024. Proceedings 2024, 102(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2024102004 Published: 3 April 2024 Download keyboard_arrow_down Download PDF Download PDF with Cover Download XML Download Epub Download Supplementary Material Versions Notes Keywords: wastewater; chemical mixtures; risk assessment; effects Due to global warming, new practices should be adopted in the use of wastewater in the agricultural, industrial, and urban sectors. In the European context, the countries of the Southern Mediterranean are those that present the greatest vulnerabilities, and those on which inaction will take the greatest toll.The regulation approved on 13 May 2020, by the European Parliament establishes minimum requirements for the reuse of treated urban wastewater, aiming to guarantee an alternative water supply.Although low concentrations of chemical contaminants may be present in the environment, their effects can be exacerbated by the presence of other chemical substances, acting as chemical mixtures. In the specific case of wastewater, studies have reported the presence of biocides, pesticides, dermocosmetic products (including UV filters), pharmaceuticals, and detergents, among many others, which constitute a mixture of micropollutants with concentrations ranging between ng/L and µg/L. As individual components, all of these substances are toxic to humans. Since there is a gap in the risk assessment of chemical mixtures, an interesting proposal would be the implementation of a combined method comprising the chemical analysis of water and the study of these mixtures' potential effects through in vitro exposure to extracts isolated from different wastewaters in culture. This way, the potential genetic damage and the effects on immunomodulation, inflammation, and several other biomarkers can be studied at the chemical mixture level.Even though these practices are not commonly adopted in Portugal and the maximum values of chemical substances are predetermined, the effects of a mixture are expected to exceed the effects of individual substances through toxicological reactions such as addition, potentiation, and synergy. Furthermore, through the phenomenon of globalization, the supply of these foodstuffs in national markets will become a reality, making food a route of exposure to these substances throughout the food chain. Supplementary MaterialsThe presentation materials can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/proceedings2024102004/s1. Author ContributionsConceptualization, investigation, writing—original draft preparation, review and editing were performed by J.C. and C.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. FundingSupported by H&TRC—Health & Technology Research Center, Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa. H&TRC author gratefully acknowledges the FCT/MCTES national support through the UIDP/05608/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDP/05608/2020), UIDB/05608/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/05608/2020).Institutional Review Board StatementNot applicable.Informed Consent StatementNot applicable.Data Availability StatementNo new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.Conflicts of InterestThe authors declare no conflicts of interest.Disclaimer/Publisher's Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Share and Cite MDPI and ACS Style Cabêda, J.; Ladeira, C. Reuse of Wastewater: Concerns about the Effects of Mixtures of Chemical Substances on Human Health. Proceedings 2024, 102, 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2024102004 AMA Style Cabêda J, Ladeira C. Reuse of Wastewater: Concerns about the Effects of Mixtures of Chemical Substances on Human Health. Proceedings. 2024; 102(1):4. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2024102004 Chicago/Turabian Style Cabêda, José, and Carina Ladeira. 2024. "Reuse of Wastewater: Concerns about the Effects of Mixtures of Chemical Substances on Human Health" Proceedings 102, no. 1: 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2024102004 Article Metrics No No Article Access Statistics Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.