ABSTRACT

Intensive industrialization of the world has resulted in an increased input of toxic inorganic and organic compounds to the environment, drastically deteriorating the quality of surface and ground waters as well as agricultural land. Anthropogenic pollution of drinking water supplies and resources indispensable for food production has become a fact of life. The number of known organic compounds is now estimated to be about 16 million, 2 million of which are synthetic compounds. Every year, approximately 250,000 new compounds are synthesized, and about 1,000 of them are manufactured on an industrial scale. Presently, ca. 70,000 organic compounds are commercially available, with an annual global production of 100 to 200 million tons. About one-third of all organic compounds produced end up in the environment, including water (Biziuk and Przyjazny, 1996; Biziuk et al., 2001).