A community-guided approach to monitoring contaminants of emerging concern in freshwater systems using passive samplers
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Richardson, Alexandra K
Friedman, Stav
Barron, Leon P
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Chemical pollution in the aquatic environment is a global issue, representing a threat to human and environmental health, especially for unregulated contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). Identifying and prioritising pollution sources requires high spatio-temporal resolution data and strategic site selection; here, local knowledge provides valuable insight. This study evaluated a community-guided approach for monitoring CECs in freshwater systems using a miniaturised 3D-printed passive sampler device (3D-PSD). Seventeen citizen scientists from Sheffield, Norwich, and London (England) selected sites along their local rivers and were trained to deploy 3D-PSDs and collect water samples. A total of 51 CECs were quantified in the water and passive sampler extracts, with ketamine, lidocaine, tramadol, and venlafaxine occurring in over 50% of samples. All compounds were present below the medium-risk threshold. Results were shared via an online meeting and a public-facing report. Participants highlighted the importance of rivers and other blue-green spaces in their daily lives and reported spending up to four hours at their local rivers per visit. They identified key areas for improving the field deployment procedure and the data collection system. This work demonstrates the applicability of the 3D-PSD to large-scale citizen science and other community engagement projects for freshwater monitoring.
Date Issued
2026-01-07
Date Acceptance
2025-11-03
Citation
npj Emerging Contaminants, 2026, 2
ISSN
3059-3719
Publisher
Nature Research
Journal / Book Title
npj Emerging Contaminants
Volume
2
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
1
Date Publish Online
2026-01-07