Emerging contaminants – general aspects: sources, substances involved, and quantification

This review reports a discussion involving sources, adverse effects, and quantification of emerging contaminants that have polluted the environment, such as chemical elements employed in medicine (antimony, barium, and gadolinium), microplastics in water bodies, in addition to pharmaceutical, illicit drugs, and their metabolites in wastewater and sewage sludge. It also addresses the pollution caused by emerging contaminants in urban areas, such as gas stations and hairdressing salons. The main analytical methods recommended for determining all these contaminants are briefly reported.