Removal of estrogens and estrogenicity through drinking water treatment

Abstract

Estrogenic compounds have been shown to be present in surface waters, leading to concerns over their possible presence in finished drinking waters. In this work, two in vitro human cell line bioassays for estrogenicity were used to evaluate the removal of estrogens through conventional drinking water treatment using a natural water. Bench-scale studies utilizing chlorine, alum coagulation, ferric chloride coagulation, and powdered activated carbon (PAC) were conducted using Ohio River water spiked with three estrogens, 17β-estradiol, 17α-ethynylestradiol, and estriol.Treatment of the estrogens with chlorine, either alone or with coagulant, resulted in approximately 98% reductions in the concentrations of the parent estrogens, accompanied by formation of by-products. The MVLN reporter gene and MCF-7 cell proliferation assays were used to characterize the estrogenic activity of the water before and after treatment. The observed estrogenic activities of the chlorinated samples showed that estrogenicity of the water was reduced commensurate with removal of the parent estrogen. Therefore, the estrogen chlorination by-products did not contribute appreciably to the estrogenic activity of the water. Coagulation alone did not result in significant removals of the estrogens. However, addition of PAC, at a typical drinking water plant dose, resulted in removals ranging from approximately 20 to 80%.

Removal of 17α-ethynylestradiol from aqueous solutions by a hybrid PAC/UF process

“…Several methods for the removal of steroidal oestrogens from water have been explored. Conventional water treatment processes such as coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration are not effective for removing EE2 (Johnson et al, 2005;Kuch and Ballschmitter, 2001;Schenck et al, 2012). Thus, the development of new methods for the efficient removal of this pollutant from water bodies is necessary.…”

Towards improved drinking water safety: the use of in vitro bioassays to optimize treatment processes and assess chemical hazards

“…Taken together, the results suggest there was little or no removal effect following this primary treatment step of the full-scale system. Other studies have reported that chemical precipitation processes using coagulants like aluminum sulfate, which is used at Görvälnverket, result in minimal removal of most endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) [45,50].…”

Remediation efficiency of three treatments on water polluted with endocrine disruptors: Assessment by means of in vitro techniques

“…It has been reported that PAC is able to remove through adsorption processes a number of EDCs, including E1, E2, EE2, E3 and bisphenol A (Joseph et al, 2013;Schenck et al, 2012;Westerhoff et al, 2005;Yoon et al, 2003). In the past few years, many researchers have demonstrated that AC also has a strong capability of removing a broad range of representative EDCs for artificial and real waste water in the laboratory and pilot and fullscale plants (Choi et al, 2005;Fukuhara et al, 2006;Tsai et al, 2006;Snyder et al, 2007).…”