An abundance of micropollutants (MPs) in treated wastewater (WW) and occasionally even in drinking water represents a global threat from the environmental and public health risk standpoint. Along with the development of innovative WW treatment technologies, advanced analytical techniques, such as chromatography hyphenated to high-resolution mass spectrometry, are required for ensuring the detectability of target and nontarget MPs. Further studies on the chronic toxicity of MPs are needed to improve the regulation of hazardous substances in WWs. This article provides an up-to-date overview of the latest methodological developments related to the screening and quantification of MPs, including suspect screening, nontargeted analysis, and ecotoxicological evaluation of WWs, reported in the literature over the years 2015–2020, with 79% of the references from the last 2.5 years.

By Olga Muter, Vadims Bartkevics