Monitoring micropollutants in French aquatic environments: recent advances

Some substances produced by human activities require particularly close monitoring, due to their dispersal in the environment and their potential effects on living organisms, even at low doses. A key issue in risk prevention is to improve our understanding of their presence and level in the environment and their effects on human health and on aquatic environments. For several decades, measures have been taken to monitor and evaluate the quality of ecosystems in order to drive forward the necessary conservation actions. Significant efforts have been made over the last few years, under three national plans, and individual citizens have become increasingly aware of these issues. All this has led to real progress, in particular in the monitoring of so-called “emerging substances”. The exploratory monitoring campaigns in 2011 and 2012 on rivers, lakes, littoral waters and groundwater throughout mainland France and its overseas territories showed that substances such as plasticisers, drugs and pesticides are among those most often found in these environments.