Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Compounds as Emerging Water Pollutants

Abstract

Aquatic ecosystems are pivotal resources that nurture diverse life forms apart from providing different ecosystem services. Global pollution, directly and indirectly, depletes the quality and standards of these resources and hampers the animals residing there. The incomplete combustion of all sorts of organic substances found in nature produces and release an emerging group of contaminants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). There are over a hundred different kinds of PAHs known and 16 amongst them are regarded as priority pollutants including phenanthrene (PHE). PHE is abundantly found in the aquatic environment and poses a higher risk to animals. It causes a vast array of toxicities in aquatic animals including genotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, transgenerational toxicity, neurotoxicity, developmental toxicity, and potentially induces oxidative stress and behavioral alterations. However, many areas of PHE toxicity in aquatic organisms are yet to be properly understood and management measures are yet to be initiated.