Estrogen and estrogen mimics contamination in water and the role of sewage treatment

Abstract

The yeast estrogen screen was applied to sewage treatment process waters to identify the presence of estrogenic activity and to investigate the fate and behavior of estrogenic substances through treatment. Hydrophobic fractions in the water phase were extracted and concentrated using C18 cartridges for the effective extraction of 17β-estradiol (E2) and other estrogen mimics. Clear dose-dependent elevation in the synthesis of β-galactosidase in the yeast screen was observed with all the samples tested, demonstrating that these samples were estrogenic. However, estrogenic activity tended to reduce during the treatment, especiallyiin the biological process. Quantification results of the yeast estrogen screen in terms of E2 equivalent were compared with actual E2 concentrations measured by an ELISA. E2 occupied 34% of the whole estrogenicity in the raw sewage, while almost 100% in the final effluent. The analyses of the sewage treatment process waters revealed that human estrogens are major causative substances in terms of estrogenic activity in sewage and its treated effluent. Although findings of possible correlation of environmental estrogens with the real impact on human health and the ecosystem are still the focus of scientific debate and investigation, proper management should be established in the sewage treatment process which receives various environmental contaminants.

The effectiveness of anaerobic digestion in removing estrogens and nonylphenol ethoxylates

“…However, transformations of E2 toE1 occurred in samples which had not been sterilized and this was attributed to biological inter-conversion under anaerobic conditions possibly catalysed by other biological conversions. Higher levels ofE1 were observed in the sludge entering an anaerobic digester than leaving in the treated sludge suggesting the conversion of E1 to E2 [35] providing further potential evidence of biotransformation. The de-conjugation of E1-3S, and thus its conversion to E1, appeared to be unaffected by temperature as the percent removal range has a maximum of 7% between thermophilic and mesophilic temperatures for the equivalent sludge types (Table 2).…”

Occurrence and fate of steroid estrogens in the largest wastewater treatment plant in Beijing, China

“…Because only 1-2% of administered EE2 is transformed to E1, E2, or E3 (Ranney 1977) and, compared with natural E2 excretion, the amount of E2 in pharmaceutical usage is <5% (Christensen 1998), the higher relative abundance of natural estrogens should be due to human excretions (Zhou et al 2011). A study in Japan has also concluded that human estrogens are the major estrogenic compounds in sewage and effluent (Matsui et al 2000). In effluent from the present study, the relative abundance of E1 and EE2 in excess of 70% revealed lower removal of E1 and EE2.…”

The fate and behavior of selected endocrine disrupting chemicals in full scale wastewater and sludge treatment unit processes

“…A study of mass balance of estrogens in sewage treatment works (STW) in Germany demonstrated that most of the estrogenic activity in the wastewater was biodegraded during treatment rather than adsorbed onto suspended solids (Korner et al, 2000). In a study of Japanese STWs by Matsui et al (2000), it was shown that 10 % removal of E2 occurred across the primary sedimentation, 87 % across the nitrifying activated sludge and a further 22 % removal across the tertiary sand filters. The overall removal of 87 % was reported.…”