An assessment of the presence and health risks of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the drinking water treatment plant of Wu Chang, China

ABSTRACT

An assessment of the presence and health risks of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) of Wu Chang was performed. A recombinant yeast assay was used to assess the endocrine disrupting activity of the effluents of the DWTP. Agonistic activities of the estrogen receptor and androgen receptor were not detected in any of the effluent samples. However, anti-estrogenic and anti-androgenic activities were observed. In addition, the removal rates of the DWTP for the anti-androgenic activities were limited. A health risk assessment was performed on the basis of the results of the recombinant yeast assay, and the total daily production of hormones was used to evaluate the health risks of these types of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The predicted effects of the anti-estrogenic and anti-androgenic disrupting activities were below 1.5%. This study suggested that the combined toxicity bioassays with health risk assessment could provide an available method to assess endocrine-disrupting chemicals and to evaluate the potential adverse effects on human health for aquatic environmental samples.

KEYWORDS:

• endocrine-disrupting chemicals
• drinking water treatment plant
• health risk assessment
• in vitro bioassay

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41001351), the Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (2014ZX07201-010), and the China Scholarship Council (201606045023).