Occurrences of six steroid estrogens from different effluents in Beijing, China

Abstract

Concentration levels of six natural and anthropogenic origin steroid estrogens, namely, diethylstilbestrol (DES), estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), ethinylestradiol (EE2), and estradiol-17-valerate (Ev), from different effluents in Beijing were assessed. Sampling sites include two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), a chemical plant, a hospital, a pharmaceutical factory, a hennery, and a fish pool. In general, concentrations of estrogens in the effluents varied from no detection (nd) to 11.1 ng/l, 0.7 to 1.2 × 10 3 ng/l, nd to 67.4 ng/l, nd to 4.1 × 10 3 ng/l, nd to 1.2 × 10 3 ng/l, and nd to 11.2 ng/l for DES, E1, E2, EE2, E3, and Ev, respectively. The concentration levels of steroid estrogens from different effluents decreased in the order of pharmaceutical factory and WWTP inlets > hospital > hennery > chemical factory > fish pool. This study indicated that natural estrogens E1, E2, and E3 and synthetic estrogen EE2 are the dominant steroid estrogens found in the different Beijing effluents. For source identification, an indicator (hE = E3/(E1 + E2 + E3)) was used to trace human estrogen excretion. Accordingly, hE in effluents from the hospital and WWTP inlets exceeded 0.4, while much smaller values were obtained for the other effluents. Human excretions were the major contributor of natural estrogens in municipal wastewater. Estimation results demonstrated that direct discharge was the major contributor of steroid estrogen pollution in receiving waters.

Occurrence and fate of steroid estrogens in the largest wastewater treatment plant in Beijing, China

“…A similar result has been reported in a municipal sewage treatment plant in Wuhan, China (Jin et al 2008). The relatively high influent concentration of EE2 in our studied WWTP may be due to correlative industry discharge (Cui et al 2006;Zhou et al 2011) or/and different consumption rates of contraceptive pills compared to other regions. For steroid estrogens E2, E3, and EE2, the seasonal influent concentration was in the order of spring>autumn>summer>winter.…”

“…2, for influent, E1 and E3 were the main contributors and accounted for >60%. Because only 1-2% of administered EE2 is transformed to E1, E2, or E3 (Ranney 1977) and, compared with natural E2 excretion, the amount of E2 in pharmaceutical usage is <5% (Christensen 1998), the higher relative abundance of natural estrogens should be due to human excretions (Zhou et al 2011). A study in Japan has also concluded that human estrogens are the major estrogenic compounds in sewage and effluent (Matsui et al 2000).…”

“…Consequently, monitoring influent and effluent steroid estrogen concentrations and assessing their fate in different areas and different WWTP treatment processes are essential. Previous reports have shown estrogenic activity in effluent from large sewage treatment plants in Beijing (Ma et al 2005(Ma et al , 2007 and revealed the presence of steroid estrogens in WWTP influent and effluent in China (Jin et al 2008;Chang et al 2011;Zhou et al 2011). However, studies on seasonal variation and the removal and degradation mechanism of steroid estrogens in WWTPs are absent in China.…”

Research Advancements in Ozone Treatment for Estrogenic Activities in Hospital Wastewater

“…DEHP is a plasticizer that is commonly used in polyvinyl chloride products to improve their flexibility [6]. DES is a synthetic estrogen that is routinely used to prevent spontaneous abortion [15]. Nonylphenol (NP) is widely used as a surfactant in laundry and cleaning practices and is a steady metabolite of nonylphenol ethoxylates in a natural environment [7].…”

“…Broséus et al achieved more than 80% removal rate for caffeine, pharmaceuticals, and EDCs with the use of ozone (2 mg·min/L) to treat wastewater [27]. However, HWW is rarely involved in previous research on EDC removal via ozone because most of DeS nc Cancer, immune system, and reproductive effects [15,22] nP nc Cancer, development, and reproductive effects [23] a Average concentration; nd: below detectable limit; nc: uncertain.…”