Republication or reproduction of this report or its storage and/or dissemination by electronic means is permitted without the need for formal IUPAC permission on condition that an acknowledgment Endocrine disruptors in the environment (IUPAC Technical Report)Abstract: Many chemical substances of natural or anthropogenic origin are suspected or known to be endocrine disruptors, which can influence the endocrine system of life. This observation has led to increased interest on the part of the public and the media, as well as to a steep rise of research activities in the scientific community. New papers and results are presented so fast that it is impossible to give a complete review of this emerging research field. Therefore, this paper tries to give insight into some topics of the great scope of endocrine disruptors in the environment. To get a general idea of the biochemical and biological background, some parts of the endocrine systems of mammalians and nonmammalians are explained. The sections that follow describe important mechanisms of endocrine disruption such as interactions with hormone receptors. Test strategies for anthropogenic chemicals on various organisms are critically reviewed with respect to their problems and gaps concerning endocrine disruptors. The main emphasis of the paper is on the chemical substances suspected or known to be endocrine disruptors. To get a better comprehension of their behavior in the environment, physicochemical data such as water solubility or K ow , as well as information about their use and/or function are reviewed and compared. The main routes of exposure for most chemicals are shortly described, and data about concentrations in the environment (soil/sediment, water) are detailed.

Steroidal hormones produced by humans and animals are constantly excreted into the environment in their active forms. The primary steroid hormones are progesterone, estrone, estradiol, testosterone, and cortisol, all of which are lipophilic and poorly soluble in water. The steroids of major concern are estrone and estradiol-17β, since they exert their physiological effects at a lower concentration than other steroids and can be found in the environment in concentrations above their LOEL for fish and plants (10 ng/l). The steroid hormones can be readily measured in run-off, soil, and groundwater, but each steroid has its distinct pathway of transport. Since the major source of steroids in the environment appears to be cattle and chickens, the hormonal steroid input into the environment could be drastically reduced by well-established techniques such as buffer strips and composting.

Although concentrated animal feeding operations constantly generate physiologically active steroidal hormones, little is known of their environmental fate. Estrogen and testosterone concentrations in groundwater and their distribution in sediments below a dairy-farm wastewater lagoon were therefore determined and compared to a reference site located upgradient of the farm. Forward simulations of flow as well as estrogen and testosterone transport were conducted based on data from the sediment profile obtained during drilling of a monitoring well belowthe dairy-farm waste lagoon. Testosterone and estrogen were detected in sediments to depths of 45 and 32 m, respectively. Groundwater samples were directly impacted by the dairy farm, as evidenced by elevated concentrations of nitrate, chloride, testosterone, and estrogen as compared to the reference site. Modeling potential transport of hormones in the vadose zone via advection, dispersion, and sorption could not explain the depths at which estrogen and testosterone were found, suggesting that other transport mechanisms influence hormone transport under field conditions. These mechanisms may involve interactions between hormones and manure as well as preferential flow paths, leading to enhanced transport rates. These types of interactions should be further investigated to understand the processes regulating hormone transport in the subsurface environment and parametrized to forecast long-term fate and transport of steroidal hormones.

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