Persistent Organic Pollutants in Environment: Bioaccumulation, Biomonitoring and Ecotoxicological Risk Assessment

Dear Colleagues,

The production of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is relatively recent, dating to the boom in industrial production. It has aroused environmentalists and public concerns. As its name implies, once released into the environment, POPs remain intact for exceptionally long periods of time; some can even last for many years and become widely distributed across the environment due to natural processes involving soil, water and air and may be further transported by wind and water, affecting people and wildlife far from where they are used or released. As a result, POPs can be found virtually everywhere on our planet at measurable concentrations. Additionally, POPs are usually lipophilic and, as such, accumulate by organisms in adipose tissue and pass from one species to the next throughout the food chain, ending in human body. More crucial is that exposure to POPs poses a threat to animals and the environment and has been linked to developmental defects, chronic illnesses and even death to human beings. Of the numerous POPs that are prevalent in our environment, 12 of the most persistent, bioaccumulative chemicals have been identified for priority action under the treaty known as the Stockholm Convention, as well as new ones of global concern that will be added once the treaty is in force.

The aim of this Special Issue on “Persistent Organic Pollutants in Environment: Bioaccumulation, Biomonitoring and Ecotoxicological Risk Assessment” is to publish high-quality papers of original research or review articles addressing, but not limited to, the following topics: (i) residual levels and bio-availability of legacy and novel POPs in the environment on the basis of monitoring approach; (ii) long-term monitoring data to evaluate the impact of climate change on environmental behaviors and ecological risk of POPs; and (iii) biomonitoring and epidemiological studies to determine the association between exposure to POPs and human health outcomes. Studies that are designed using a large-scale or long-term framework will be given high priority.

Dr. Hongkai Zhu
Dr. Yu Wang
Prof. Dr. Hongwen Sun
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• POPs
• environmental behaviors
• bioaccumulation
• biomonitoring
• ecotoxicological risk
• climate change
• human exposure