PARENT SESSION

PT07 Chemical and Biological Analysis of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Tuesday

(PT118) An evaluation of endocrine disrupting chemicals and activities in wastewater treatment plant effluents.

Nelson, J¹, Law, F¹, Ikonomou, M², van Roodselaar, A³, ¹ Simon Fraser University² Institute of Ocean Sciences, Department of Fisheries and Oceans³ Greater VAncouver Regional District

ABSTRACT- An array of environmental pollutants has been shown to affect the activities of the endocrine systems in animals and fish. These chemicals are collectively referred to as the endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). A number of rapid in vitro screening assays also have been developed to determine the activities of the EDCs. However, both false negative and false positive results have been reported by these assays when the EDCs levels in the samples are low. Little is known of the chemical composition and activities of the EDC mixtures in the municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the EDCs in selected municipal WWTP effluents using the E-Screen bioassay and two different Yeast Estrogen Screen (YES) bioassays. The E-Screen bioassay was conducted with the MCF-7 (BOS) cell line; whereas the two YES bioassays were carried out with two different variations of recombinant yeast. EDC activity levels, detected in the municipal WWTP samples, were considerably higher than the activity of the 27ng/L 17 estradiol standard. The data also indicate that secondary treatment plants are not better than the primary treatment plants in removing EDCs from the final effluents. The employment of several bioassays simultaneously as described in the present study should produce a clear picture on the endocrine disrupting activities of the municipal WWTP effluents. Chemical analysis also has been performed on selected effluent samples using a high resolution gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer to elucidate the EDCs that might likely be responsible for the detected activity levels. Work is also under way to relate the relevance of these measured activities to fish in the receiving environments (Supported by a research grant from the GVRD).

Key words: WWTP, EDC, E-Screen, YES