ScienceDaily (Dec. 21, 2010) — Every hour, an enormous quantity
and variety of human-made chemicals, having reached the end of
their useful lifespan, flood into wastewater treatment plants.
These large-scale processing facilities, however, are designed
only to remove nutrients, turbidity and oxygen-depleting human
waste, and not the multitude of chemicals put to residential,
institutional, commercial and industrial use. So what happens to
these chemicals, some of which may be toxic to humans and the
environment? Do they get destroyed during wastewater treatment
or do they wind up in the environment with unknown consequences?
New research by Rolf Halden and colleagues at the Biodesign
Institute at Arizona State University seeks to address such
questions. The group's results, reported recently in the Journal
of Environmental Monitoring, suggest that a number of high
production volume (HPV) chemicals -- that is, those used in the
U.S. at rates exceeding 1 million pounds per year, are likely to
become sequestered