An LC-MS/MS based survey of contaminants of emerging concern in drinking water in South Africa

Advances in many analytical techniques allow the detection of compounds in water at very low concentrations (ng/L), which has facilitated the identification of many compounds in drinking water that went previously undetected. Some of these compounds are contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), which is broadly defined as any chemical or microorganism that is not currently being routinely monitored but has recently been identified as being present in the environment, and that may pose health or ecological risks. CECs can include pharmaceuticals, personal health care products and pesticides. Some CECs can act as endocrine disruptors, interfering with the normal functioning of the human endocrine system, potentially influencing foetal and child development. Although the level of many of these compounds are orders of magnitude below known acute toxicity levels, the health impact of long term exposure at low levels is mostly unknown. In this study, we present the results of a national survey over four seasons of potential CECs in the drinking water of major South African cities. The contaminants most often detected were the related herbicides atrazine and terbuthylazine, and the anticonvulsant and mood-stabilising drug, carbamazepine. The levels of these CECs were well below maximum levels proposed by the World Health Organization and the US Environmental Protection Agency. However, the range of CECs detected in drinking water, and seasonal and geographic variability in CECs levels, warrant a more frequent screening programme

Enterprise richness as an important characteristic of South African towns

Towards the end of the 20th century there were almost 500 small towns of fewer than 50 000 persons in South Africa, accommodating about one tenth of the country’s population. Little was known or said in national debates about the future of these places. A decade later this situation had changed and many studies have been or are being undertaken on small towns. For instance, the South African Government recognised that to stem the continued migration from rural to urban areas, a different approach was needed to economic development in rural municipalities and a ‘Small Towns Regeneration Project’ was initiated. Concerns about a perceived decline of rural towns also stimulated a quest to develop or find methods and/or measures to monitor the well-being of towns. Elsewhere in the world, small and medium enterprise ‘observatories’ were established to study and report on all aspects of small and medium enterprises, an approach recently followed in South Africa. New ways are needed to improve our understanding of the enterprise dynamics of South African towns. In this contribution, we examine the potential utility of the enterprise richness (i.e. the number of enterprise types) of South African towns and show that enterprise richness has a strong and fully quantifiable relationship with the total number of enterprises in the towns. This contribution adds a new dimension to the capability to make predictions about the enterprise structures of South African towns

Proportionality in enterprise development of South African towns

We investigated proportionalities in the enterprise structures of 125 South African towns through examining four hypotheses, (1) the magnitude of enterprise development in a town is a function of the population size of the town; (2) the size of an enterprise assemblage of a town is a function of the town’s age; (3) there are statistically significant relationships, and hence proportionalities, between the total number of enterprises in towns and some, if not all, of the enterprise numbers of different business sectors in towns; and (4) the implications of proportionalities have far-reaching implications for rural development and job creation. All hypotheses were accepted on the basis of statistically significant (p < 0.05) correlations, except for the second hypothesis – the age of a town does not determine the size of its enterprise assemblage. Analysis for the fourth hypothesis suggested that there are two broad entrepreneurial types in South African towns: ‘run-of-the-mill’ entrepreneurs and ‘special’ entrepreneurs, which give rise to different enterprise development dynamics. ‘Run-of-the-mill’ enterprises are dependent on, and limited by, local demand and if there is only a small demand, the entrepreneurial space is small. By comparison, ‘special’ enterprises have much larger markets because their products and/or services are exportable. We propose that the fostering of ‘special’ entrepreneurs is an imperative for local economic development in South African towns

An LC-MS/MS based survey of contaminants of emerging concern in drinking water in South Africa

Advances in many analytical techniques allow the detection of compounds in water at very low concentrations (ng/L), which has facilitated the identification of many compounds in drinking water that went previously undetected. Some of these compounds are contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), which is broadly defined as any chemical or microorganism that is not currently being routinely monitored but has recently been identified as being present in the environment, and that may pose health or ecological risks. CECs can include pharmaceuticals, personal health care products and pesticides. Some CECs can act as endocrine disruptors, interfering with the normal functioning of the human endocrine system, potentially influencing foetal and child development. Although the level of many of these compounds are orders of magnitude below known acute toxicity levels, the health impact of long term exposure at low levels is mostly unknown. In this study, we present the results of a national survey over four seasons of potential CECs in the drinking water of major South African cities. The contaminants most often detected were the related herbicides atrazine and terbuthylazine, and the anticonvulsant and mood-stabilising drug, carbamazepine. The levels of these CECs were well below maximum levels proposed by the World Health Organization and the US Environmental Protection Agency. However, the range of CECs detected in drinking water, and seasonal and geographic variability in CECs levels, warrant a more frequent screening programme