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(16-22) Evaluation of the amount of compounds with estrogenic activity emitted from activated sludge plants. Mößmer, Pamela*,1, Spengler, Peter2, Willems, Marco1, Metzger, Jörg2, Janke, Hans-Dieter1, 1 Institute for Environmentally Compatible Process Technology, Im Stadtwald 47, Saarbrücken, Germany2 University of Stuttgart, Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management, Stuttgart, Germany ABSTRACT- Two municipal sewage treatment plants (STP) of different type (technical-scale conventional activated sludge plant / 200.000 PE versus pilot-scale activated sludge plant with immersed hollow-fibre membranes) were investigated for various organic compounds with estrogenic activity. Besides some natural compounds (17b-Estradiol, Estron, b-Sitosterol), the selected substances are used as pharmaceuticals (synthetic estrogens: 17a-Ethinylestradiol, Mestranol) and industrial chemicals (xenoestrogens: Bisphenol A, 4-Nonylphenol*, 4-Octylphenol, 4-Nonylphenoxyacetic acid*, 4-Nonylphenoldiethoxylate*, Benzyl-n-butylphthalate; *: Mixture of isomers). The analytical method is based on GC-MS-analysis following solid phase extraction, clean-up and derivatization of the samples. Identification and quantification of the compounds was carried out by using different internal standards with the standard addition method. At both STPs influent and effluent samples were analysed. The activated sludge STPs were operated in parallel with the same municipal wastewater (after mechanical pre-treatment). In addition to chemical analysis, some of the wastewater samples were tested for their estrogenic activity using an in vitro test system working with MCF-7 breast cancer cells (E-Screen-Assay). The individual analytes were found to differ significantly with respect to their content in the analysed effluent samples. Based on the analysis of 6 parallel samples (taken periodically within 6 months), daily emission (in terms of mikrogramms per PE) from activated sludge plants of the mentioned type was evaluated for each of the compounds under study. Key words: Sewage treatment plants, estrogenic activity, E-Screen, membranes |
