Pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and oil spills are the most hazardous contaminants in aquatic environments. The COVID-19 pandemic enhanced pharmaceutical and microplastic contamination in aquatic environments. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of pharmaceutical and microplastic pollution on a global scale. This study assessed the results of pharmaceutical contamination in 25 countries and microplastic pollution in 13 countries. The findings show that pharmaceutical residues were detected in surface water, groundwater, and wastewater influents and effluents. In total, 43 types of pharmaceutical products were detected in 25 countries. Caffeine, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, sulfamethoxazole, and carbamazepine were the most abundant. In total, 32 types of polymers were detected in 13 countries. In the case of microplastics, polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, and polyethylene terephthalate were the more abundant polymers. Particles with a size of 1–2.5 mm and 2.5–5 mm accounted for half of the microplastics present in 13 countries. This study provides new evidence of the importance of emerging pollutants in aquatic environments before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A novel fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) working with deep UV 240–280 nm wavelength excitations has been developed. UV-FLIM is used for measurement of defect-related fluorescence and its changes upon annealing from femtosecond laser-induced modifications in fused silica. This FLIM technique can be used with microfluidic and biosamples to characterize temporal characteristics of fluorescence upon UV excitation, a capability easily added to a standard microscope-based FLIM. UV-FLIM was tested to show annealing of the defects induced by silica structuring with ultrashort laser pulses. Frequency-domain fluorescence measurements were converted into the time domain to extract long fluorescence lifetimes from defects in silica.