Human Exposure

Pharmaceuticals, hormones, personal care products, and other contaminants of concern associated with everyday household activities were found in adjacent shallow groundwater near two septic system networks in New York (NY) and New England (NE). Factors influencing movement to shallow groundwater and the types of chemicals found include population served by a septic system, site conditions such as...

A new USGS report, Mercury in the Nation's Streams—Levels, Trends, and Implications, presents a comprehensive assessment of mercury contamination in streams across the United States. It highlights the importance of environmental processes, monitoring, and control strategies for understanding and reducing stream mercury levels. This report summarizes selected stream studies conducted by the U.S...

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists used a mass–balance solute–transport model to enhance an understanding of factors affecting chlorinated ethene (CE) concentrations in a public supply well. They found that long–term simulated and measured CEconcentrations were affected by dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) volume, composition, and by the bioavailability of organic carbon that drives...

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists studying a midwestern stream conclude that pharmaceuticals and other contaminants in treated wastewater effluent discharged to the stream are transported into adjacent shallow groundwater. Other mobile chemicals found in wastewater are expected to have similar fates.

Landfill leachate contains a variety of chemicals that reflect our daily activities, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists concluded as a result of a nationwide study. Landfills are a common disposal mechanism for our Nation's solid waste from residential, commercial, and industrial sources. The scientists found that pharmaceuticals, personal-care products, and other contaminants of emerging...

A team of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Agroscope Reckenholz-Tanikon Research Station, Switzerland, found that some mycotoxins are common in U. S. stream waters. Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced by molds (fungi) that can cause disease and even death in humans and animals. Mycotoxins can grow on a wide variety of crops.

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists found that mercury concentrations in shallow waters and methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in fish in four lakes in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, were not consistent with decreases in the wet atmospheric deposition of mercury recorded at nearby monitoring stations for over a decade. Methylmercury is a toxic form of mercury (Hg) that accumulates and...

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists report that glyphosate, known commercially by many trade names, and its degradation product AMPA (aminomethylphosphonic acid) are transported off-site from agricultural and urban sources and occur widely in the environment. This study is the largest and most comprehensive assessment of the environmental occurrence of glyphosate and AMPA in the United States...

Rising global temperatures and changing human actions will significantly affect the environmental distribution of mercury worldwide, according to a recent article in Science by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Harvard University scientists. Higher temperatures and weaker air circulation patterns from climate change will likely have significant impacts on the atmospheric lifetime and patterns of...

Testing of U.S. streams has detected glucocorticoid and androgen biological activity. In a collaborative study between the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Laboratory of Receptor Biology and Gene Expression, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and others, scientists studied the potential for the biological activity in streams of glucocorticoids and androgens hormones—both potential endocrine...

Natural processes in stream ecosystems such as dilution and microbial degradation are known to attenuate some contaminants to below levels that can cause harm to ecosystems. However, a team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists has shown that many chemicals discharged from municipal wastewater treatment facilities persist for miles downstream at levels known, or suspected, to cause adverse...

Hormones from biosolids applied to fields may be present in rainfall runoff at concentrations that are high enough to impact the health of aquatic organisms if the runoff reaches streams, report scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Colorado State University in Environmental Science and Technology. Artificial rainfall runoff from agricultural test plots where biosolids were applied...