Pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds in Brazilian waters: occurrence and removal techniques

ABSTRACT The human activities have increased the presence of several microcontaminants in water bodies. Of these, more recently, drugs and endocrine disrupters have called the attention of the scientific community due to their increasing exposure. The sources of contamination include cleaning and personal hygiene products, various classes of drugs, natural hormones and their by-products, as well as several substances applied to the production of plastics and resins, present in sewage, landfill leachate and industrial effluents. In this perspective, this paper aims to compile the data of microcontaminants occurrence in Brazilian natural and treated waters, as well as to discuss the efficiency of different water treatment techniques to remove such compounds.