Fate, occurrence, and removal of estrogens in livestock wastewaters

Abstract

During the last decades, livestock and animal feeding operations have been expanded. In parallel, these activities are among the major sources of estrogens in the environment. Thus, considering the environmental and health risks associated with estrogenic compounds, this work reviews the fate, occurrence, and removal of free and conjugated E1, E2, and E3 in livestock wastewaters. A systematic literature review was carried out, and after applying the eligibility criteria, 66 peer-reviewed papers were selected. Results suggest high estrogen concentrations and, consequently, high estrogenic activity, especially in samples from swine farming. E1 and E2 are frequently found in wastewaters from bovine, swine, and other livestock effluents. Aerobic treatment processes were more efficient for estrogen removal, whereas anaerobic systems seem poorly effective. Removal efficiencies of estrogens and estrogenic activity of up to 90% were reported for constructed wetlands, advanced pond systems, trickling filters, membrane bioreactors, aerated and nitrifying reactors, combined air flotation, and vegetable oil capture processes. High concentrations found in wastewaters from livestock allied to the removal efficiencies reported for anaerobic processes (usually used to treat livestock wastewaters) evidence the importance of monitoring these compounds in environmental matrices.

Rotas de conversão de matéria orgânica em Biodigestores Lagoa Coberta (BLC) no tratamento de águas residuárias de suinocultura

“…Entretanto, a cadeia suinícola intensiva possui elevado potencial poluidor, capaz de comprometer os recursos ambientais da região em que se encontra. Dentre os impactos ambientais, destacam-se: a contaminação das águas superficiais e subterrâneas advinda de elevadas concentrações de nutrientes, como fósforo e nitrogênio (LÓPEZ-PACHECO et al, 2021), e metais pesados, especialmente cobre e zinco (LIU et al, 2020); a presença de hormônios e antibióticos no digestato e lodo, o qual é utilizado como fertilizante (GOMES et al, 2022;CHENG et al, 2020a;DOMINGUES;SILVA, 2020;PENG et al, 2017), assim como as emissões de gases de efeito estufa (GEEs) e maus odores RZEŹNIK;MIELCAREK-BOCHEŃSKA, 2022).…”