Jiménez Cartagena, ClaudioPeñuela Mesa, Gustavo Antonio2011-06-032011-10-142011-06-032011-10-142011-06-03978-958-8406-12-1http://hdl.handle.net/10567/74Abstract: Human activities, including those related to production, lead to generate liquid, solid and gas waste that impact ecosystems in a dramatic way, especially water bodies. Organic micropollutants that persist in water cycles constitute an issue of great concern, given the difficulty to remove them in water treatment processes, the considerable increase of water re-use, the lack of knowledge about their presence or absence in the systems and the analytic and instrumental limitations. Not only ignoring the nature and persistence of such pollutants, but also ignoring their transformation products, is an environmental problem that jeopardizes the stability of ecosystems and the food security of Colombian people. The analytic and research challenge is enormous, but only developing new knowledge will Colombia be a competitive country in the fitosanitary field in international markets. The global concern about water pollutants and food, such as fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products among others, not only is about pesticides, It is addressed towards products such as triclosan and fragances in personal care products, nonylphenol and bisphenol (sub products from detergent’s metabolisms) steroidal hormones and antibiotics used in veterinary medicine and pharmacotherapy, polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyls (flame retardants), phthalates (plasticizers) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain killers, among others. Due to this reason, it is necessary not only to develop instrumental methodologies for their qualification and quantification, but eco-toxicity tests to allow real approaches to the exposition risk.esContaminación del aguaContaminaciónPesticidasContaminantes emergentesToxicología de plaguicidasCorporación Universitaria LasallistaContaminación agrícolaBook chapter