Occurrence, fate, and ecological risk assessment of Endocrine disrupting chemicals in sewerage drains and sewage treatment plant

Abstract

In the present work, wastewater treatment plant and sewerage drains from Nagpur, Central India were studied for frequently occurring endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). All the EDCs, such as bisphenol A (BPA), butylparaben (BuP), and diethyl phthalate (DEP) were present in all the collected samples with a detection frequency of 100%. Laboratory analysis revealed high BPA, BuP, and DEP levels, with mean concentrations of 79.10 ng/L, 4.12 ng/L, and 2.25 µg/L, respectively, in influent samples and 33.20 ng/L, 1.62 ng/L, and 0.77 µg/L, respectively, in effluent wastewater. The distribution of the emergent pollutants among the sampling locations was found to be consistent with the physico-chemical characteristics of wastewater, according to the component analysis, and the sites with the highest levels of contamination were also identified. Finally, an ecological risk assessment was carried out for aquatic biota in terms of risk quotients (RQs). The RQs for the target chemicals in effluent wastewater suggested a minimal impact, except for the target insect Chrironomus riparius, which had an RQ value of 33.20 for BPA.