Environmental fate of organic pollutants and effect on human health

Synthetic organic compounds are widely used on large scale in different areas such as manufacturing processes, production, and preservation of food, for human and animal healthcare. A diverse array of sources responsible for the release of organic pollutants into the environment includes combustion of fossil fuels, chemical industries, traffic, pesticides used in agriculture area, and water treatment using chlorination. The occurrence of these chemicals exposes severe hazard to human health, ecosystem, and living organisms.One of the major class of toxic organic compounds is persistent organic pollutants (POPs) released in the environment by different human activities. These chemical substances become a major concern because of their persistence, toxicity, bioaccumulation, and susceptibility. POPs are halogenated organic compounds resistant to biological, photolytic, and chemical degradation. POPs are the world’s most harmful chemicals including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and by-products such as dioxins and furans, etc. The continuous discharge of dangerous pollutants into the soil, water, and sediments imparts drastic effects on the whole world.POPs include PCBs, organochlorine pesticides, DDT, hexachlorobenzene, and other by-products of industrial processes including polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. These organic pollutants are synthetic, persistent, lipophilic, highly toxic, and accumulate in the food chain. POPs bioaccumulate in adipose tissue and increase the risk of adverse health effects to infants. The individual organic compounds have diverse toxicological properties which impart adverse biological effects in fish, wildlife, and humans.Also, the highest levels of POPs are found in marine mammals, which lead to vitamin and thyroid deficiencies and cause microbial infections and reproductive disorders.

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