Occurrence of chemicals with known or suspected endocrine disrupting activity in drinking water, groundwater and surface water, Austria 2017/2018

Abstract

Summary Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can cause adverse effects in individuals and their offspring. In 2017 and 2018, we performed a survey on representative samples of Austrian drinking water (n = 20), groundwater (n = 22), and surface water (n = 12), the latter including bathing water (n = 5) and rivers (n = 7). We analyzed 54 samples for 28 parameters, including estrogens, polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs), phthalates, perfluoroalkyl substances, alkylphenols, bisphenol A and triclosan, correlating to 1512 measurements. In 39 of the 54 samples (72.2%), at least one endocrine disrupting or potentially disrupting chemical was found at or above the limit of quantification. None of the samples yielded estrogens or triclosan in detectable levels. Bisphenol A (BPA) was detected in 4 (20.0%) samples of drinking water, in 1 (4.5%) groundwater sample, and in 1 (20%) bathing water sample, with a maximum concentration of 0.021 μg/l found in one drinking water. Two drinking water samples yielded BPA in concentrations above the limit value of 0.01 μg/l, recently proposed by the European Commission for drinking water. Therefore, the ultimate public health goal must be to further reduce and restrict the production of EDCs and therewith decrease and eventually eliminate the contamination of drinking water resources.

In vitro profiling of the potential endocrine disrupting activities affecting steroid and aryl hydrocarbon receptors of compounds and mixtures prevalent in human drinking water resources

“…BPA is a ubiquitous contaminant, prevalent also in water, including drinking water [40][41][42] , whose ability to activate ER-mediated pathways is well documented [43][44][45] and has been confirmed in this study. However, its activity does not always involve estrogen-mediated mechanisms as shown in human endometrial stromal fiboblasts 46 or in human endometrial adenocarcinoma cells where it prevented the proteasome-mediated degradation of ER 47 .…”

Groundwater quality

“…Thyroid antagonistic activities were discovered with a frequency between 9% and 26% in the groundwater samples. Another project in Europe analyzed endocrine disrupting chemical activities of 22 groundwater sources in Austria between 2017 and 2018, which identified 39 of 54 groundwater samples with at least one endocrine disrupting chemical (Brueller et al, 2018). Bisphenol A (BPA) as one of the primary estrogen compounds, which possibly results in infertility and breast cancer, was detected in 4.5% of the groundwater samples reaching maximum concentration of 8.9 ng/L.…”

Thyroid Disrupting Activities in Wastewater and Surface Waters: A Review of Their <i>in Vitro</i> Analyses

“…Additionally, structural resemblance of many anthropogenic chemicals to TH has often resulted in enlisting them as model or suspected TDCs. Nonetheless, in dealing with classification and characterization of potential TDCs in the environment, environmental occurrence with (anti)thyroid activity is a major factor [3] [15].…”

“…Interestingly, these chemicals have been shown to interfere with the endocrine system through multiple pathways [15], and it is therefore less likely that TR agonist activity is not environmentally relevant as performance limitation of reporter gene assays based on cell line type is increasingly becoming more probable [6].…”