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The type of water pollution can be of a chemical, physical or microbiological nature and the consequences can compromise the health of the flora and fauna involved, up to humans, harming the ecosystem and water reserves for drinking use.
There are two main ways through which pollutants reach water: directly or indirectly. Direct pollution occurs when polluting substances are poured directly into watercourses without any purification treatment. The indirect route, on the other hand, takes place when the pollutants arrive in watercourses through the air or soil.
Although the illegal discharge of untreated water allows industries to avoid treatment costs, the resulting pollution can produce damages whose economic evaluation is very often indeterminate as not all the effects are immediately evident.
Therefore, tools, techniques and structures are needed that are capable of identifying pollutants, assessing their damage and enforcing laws for the protection of the environment and common health. For the minimum clean-up program for the United States area, the forecasts of the costs to be faced to keep pollution under control are in the order of tens of billions of dollars a year, while if one wanted to develop a complete program, one would would reach a figure 5 times higher.
Association between human diseases and water pollutants
The Comprehensive Analysis of the Association between Human Diseases and Water Pollutants study, published on the International journal of environmental research and public health, explained: "Drinking water is an important natural resource.
For many people worldwide, especially in developing countries, access to safe drinking water is still a dream. An increasing number of human activities and industrialization have caused various physical, chemical, and biological pollutants to enter water bodies, affecting human health.
Water pollutants contain a vast number of additives, such as perfluorinated chemicals, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, phthalate, nanomaterials, insecticides, microcystins, heavy metals, and pharmacologies.In this work, we aim to explore the potential relationship between water pollutants and human diseases.
Here,we explored an integrative approach to identify genes,biological processes,molecular functions,and diseases linked to exposure to these water pollutants.These processes and functions affected by water pollutants are related to many diseases,including colonic neoplasms , breast neoplasms, hepatitis B, bladder cancer, and human cytomegalovirus infection.
In addition, further analysis revealed the genes that play a key role in the human diseases induced by water pollutants. Therefore, conducting an integrative toxicogenomic analysis of water pollutants is more appropriate for evaluating the potential effects of water pollutants on human health."
