Coastal environments are extremely dynamic. Pollutants in the land and water can become aerosolized and inhaled by residents of coastal communities. (Image credit: Adam Cooper, UC San Diego)
The 120-mile Tijuana River flows from Baja, California, into the United States and discharges millions of gallons of wastewater—including sewage, industrial waste, and runoff—into the Pacific Ocean every day, making it the dominant source of coastal pollution in the region. Wastewater pollution has been an ongoing problem for decades and is so severe that the nonprofit environmental group American Rivers recently named the Tijuana River America’s second most endangered river.
A new study from the University of California San Diego examines how pollutants in wastewater travel and are transmitted in the atmosphere through coastal aerosols. In the study, researchers found that a mixture of illicit drugs, drug metabolites, and chemicals from tires and personal care products aerosolize from wastewater and are detectable in both air and water. The results appear in Science Advances.…