The risks of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds (P&EDC) to the environment and human health are a current topic of interest. Hundreds of P&EDC may reach the environment, hence, there is a need to rank the level of concern of human exposure to these compounds. Thus, this work aimed at setting a priority list of P&EDC in Brazil, by studying their occurrence in raw and drinking water, calculating health guideline values (GV), and estimating the risks of population exposure to water intake. Data on the Brazilian pharmaceutical market as well as published data of the monitoring of Brazilian natural and drinking water have been collected by means of an exhaustive literature review. Furthermore, many foreign data were also collected to enable a comparison of the values found in Brazilian studies. A list of 55 P&EDC that have the potential to be found in Brazilian water is proposed, and for 41 of these a risk assessment was performed by estimating their margin of exposure (ME), by considering their occurrence in drinking water, and guideline values estimated from reported acceptable daily intake (ADI) data. For seven compounds the risk was deemed high (three estrogens and four anti-inflammatories), whereas for another seven compounds, it was regarded as an ‘alert’ situation. Although such risk analysis is conservative, since it has been calculated based on the highest reported P&EDC concentration in drinking water, it highlights the need to enhance their monitoring in Brazil to strengthen the database and support decision makers. An analysis of the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance agents (antibiotics, resistant bacteria, and resistance genes) in surface waters was also carried out and confirmed that such agents are present in water sources throughout Brazil, which deserves the attention of policy makers and health agents to prevent dissemination of antimicrobial resistance through water use.

During the last decades, livestock and animal feeding operations have been expanded. In parallel, these activities are among the major sources of estrogens in the environment. Thus, considering the environmental and health risks associated with estrogenic compounds, this work reviews the fate, occurrence, and removal of free and conjugated E1, E2, and E3 in livestock wastewaters. A systematic literature review was carried out, and after applying the eligibility criteria, 66 peer-reviewed papers were selected. Results suggest high estrogen concentrations and, consequently, high estrogenic activity, especially in samples from swine farming. E1 and E2 are frequently found in wastewaters from bovine, swine, and other livestock effluents. Aerobic treatment processes were more efficient for estrogen removal, whereas anaerobic systems seem poorly effective. Removal efficiencies of estrogens and estrogenic activity of up to 90% were reported for constructed wetlands, advanced pond systems, trickling filters, membrane bioreactors, aerated and nitrifying reactors, combined air flotation, and vegetable oil capture processes. High concentrations found in wastewaters from livestock allied to the removal efficiencies reported for anaerobic processes (usually used to treat livestock wastewaters) evidence the importance of monitoring these compounds in environmental matrices.

COVID-19 pandemic has changed several aspects in human behaviour, whereas population mobility patterns have been strongly affected by social distancing. In parallel, changes in solid waste generation patterns have been reported worldwide. This work assessed the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on waste generation and collection in São Paulo city, Brazil, the largest city of Latin America. Data on nine types of wastes collected between 2013 and 2021 were obtained, and the quantities of wastes collected before and during the pandemic were compared. These data were also discussed in light of data on COVID-19 cases and rates of social distancing and mobility. An increase in the amount of recyclables collected during the first wave of COVID-19 (March to September 2020) was observed. Decreases in the quantities of construction, demolition and bulky wastes (first wave of COVID-19) and farmers market wastes (second wave – October 2020 to February 2021) were also evidenced. The quantities of medical wastes collected during the pandemic significantly increased. The amount of residential wastes was lower than the mean for the pre-pandemic period during the first months of COVID-19. Thus, changes in lifestyle and consumption patterns of the population of São Paulo city seem to have affected solid waste generation during the pandemic, which reinforces the need of implementing solid waste management policies based on a diagnostic that characterise and consider these changes.

Micropollutants have been continuously detected in freshwater. In parallel, the potential adverse effects of human exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) through drinking water have been gaining the attention of researchers and health authorities. Given this fact, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of chlorination and photolysis to remove the estrogenic activity caused by mixtures of EDCs in water: estrone (E1: 100 ng L−1), 17β-estradiol (E2: 100 ng L−1), ethinylestradiol (EE2: 50 ng L−1), and nonylphenol (NP: 1,000 ng L−1) under operating conditions applicable for water treatment plants. The tests were performed using freshwater spiked with the following mixtures: E1 + E2, E1 + E2 + EE2, E1 + E2 + NP, and E1 + E2 + EE2 + NP). Removal efficiencies of up to 99.7% were achieved at a chlorine dose of 2.75 mg L–1 and 30 min of contact time. In photolysis, estrogenic activity removal was higher than 99.9% at a UV dose of 186 mJ cm–2. Results indicated that both chlorination and photolysis can be efficient to remove the estrogenic activity caused by the tested EDC mixtures in water. Furthermore, experiments suggested that EDC mixtures can be efficiently removed at feasible water disinfection operating conditions.