# Special Issue on the Environmental Fate of Emerging Organic Micro-Contaminants
## 2 Micro-Organic Contaminants: Perspectives on Detection, Effects and Removal/Treatment  
This Special Issue (SI) brings together a broad range of recent advances in the field of micro-organics, ranging from medicinal contaminants to industrial chemicals in the environment. Notably, these range from chemical extraction and large-scale analysis to adverse effects on non-target aquatic organisms and potential risk to humans via contaminated foodstuffs. Additionally, this Special Issue presents novel contaminant treatment and degradation methods of both physical and biological natures. A total of nine articles were selected for publication. The first article, authored by [PERSON] and [PERSON], presents an innovative and widely accessible methodology by which pharmaceuticals can be extracted from complex environmental matrices using a household espresso machine [6]. Such advancements have the potential to increase accessibility to environmental research, which is dominated by the use of complex and often prohibitively expensive equipment. As such, access to technology, such as the highly sensitive mass spectrometers needed to quantify micro-organic contaminants, tends to disproportionally favour wealthy countries (e.g., Western Europe, North America and China) [7] and institutions. The second article of this SI, authored by [PERSON] et al., presents an innovative methodology by which access to such analytical equipment may be achieved [7]. The authors accomplish this via affordable, validated and scientifically robust means for quantification of a broad suite of antimicrobials and other common medicinal products in a worldwide water enabling study [7]. With the capability and means to extract and quantify micro-organic contaminants, the study of the concomitant biological effects they may elicit in exposed organisms was also a focus of this SI. The selection of resistance to antimicrobial medicines is of increasing concern to the scientific community. In the third article of this SI, [PERSON] et al. demonstrate that the occurrence of antimicrobial-resistant genes to beta-lactams and tetracyclines is frequently detected and poorly, if at all, removed in wastewatertreatment plants [8]. Similarly, the authors of the fourth article in this SI, [PERSON] et al., found that contaminants commonly detected in wastewater (plasticisers and a biocide) manipulate the expression of the egg yolk protein vittellogenin in a compound and dose-specific manner [9]. Studies elucidating the potential biological impacts of micro-organic contaminants were not limited to lower organisms in this SI. The fifth article presents a human health risk assessment for secondary exposure to veterinary medicines via consumption of contaminated shrimp [10]. [PERSON] et al. conclude that while some aqua-farmed shrimp in Taiwan do bioaccumulate detectable concentrations of antimicrobials, the risk to humans consuming them is negligible. Ultimately, to reduce the risk of biological disruption on any level, removal or degradation of micro-organic contaminants is key. In total, four articles in this SI relate to various approaches to degrading or removing micro-organic contaminants. The sixth article of this SI, authored by [PERSON] et al., establishes that the types of perfluoro-alkyl contaminants entering wastewater treatment are linked to the type of local industry, and their removal is most effective via a combination of oxidation and activated carbon adsorption [11]. Similarly, the seventh article, authored by [PERSON] et al., reinforces the finding that adsorption of some micro-organic contaminants is an effective means to separate them from wastewater effluent prior to discharge into the environment [12]. In addition to physical separation/degradation, the last two articles of this SI focus on biological removal of such contaminants. Specifically, [PERSON] et al. demonstrate effective and rapid degradation of a common industrial contaminant using the Gram-positive bacterium _Rhodococcus_ sp. [13].