Freshwater - Outlook 2020 (France)

Emerging substances and risks in water

The Water Framework Directive classifies 41 hazardous and/or priority substances, but others, which are less well-known, are establishing themselves as emerging pollutants: residues of pharmaceuticals, personal care products including cosmetics, products resulting from the decomposition of detergents or disinfectants, plasticizers, etc. Current wastewater treatment cannot completely eliminate these substances which are found as traces in watercourses, estuaries and, to a lesser extent, in unconfined groundwater in concentrations in the ng/l to µg/l concentration range. They are not currently subject to regulation or any obligation regarding monitoring. Parallel with this, recent studies have shown an emerging risk from a family of products classed as endocrine disruptors, the role of which in the feminisation of fish, frogs, molluscs and gastropods has now been proven.

The risks are linked mainly to the capacity of certain pollutants to have carcinogenic potential, endocrine disruption or other health effects even at very low concentrations, their toxicity in combination with other substances, their transfer to ecosystems, their persistence in natural environments, their bioaccumulation, and their capacity to create resistance, for example, to antibiotics. Recognition of this new problem requires improvement of systems for treating water or the setting up of a monitoring system.