The occurrence of xenoestrogens in the Elbe river and the North Sea

Occurrence of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in riverine sediments from the Pearl River Delta, China

“…Obviously the concentration of NP was 1-3 orders of magnitude higher than that of other EDCs, and the concentrations of OP and BPA were in the similar range that was 1 order of magnitude higher than those of E1 and E2. It was noted that the sedimentary NP concentrations were 1-2 order magnitude higher than those of OP (Table 1), consistent with other observations on riverine sediments in other countries (Bennie et al, 1997;Snyder et al, 1999;Ferguson et al, 2001;Blackburn et al, 1999;Tsuda et al, 2000;Isobe et al, 2001;Heemken et al, 2001). This observation demonstrated that nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEOs), precursors of NP, dominated the usage of alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs), precursors of APs, in the PRD areas.…”

“…Apparently the pollution levels of APs in the river sediments are higher in the PRD than in Korea, Germany, Spain, and Netherlands, while they are close to the concentration ranges in urban and industrial zones and their adjacent areas located in Japan, US, UK, and Canada. The BPA concentration ranges are also in the high value scope, and similar to those in Elbe River, Germany (Heemken et al, 2001), and Tyne and Tees estuaries, UK (Lye et al, 1999), and higher than those of the other investigated European rivers. The concentrations of natural estrogen E1 in the sediments of the PRD are at high levels as well, and similar to those in the Spanish rivers , and lower than those in Ouse River of UK, but higher than those in Japanese and the other investigated European rivers.…”

“…They may also pose a potential environmental threat to aquatic organisms. Owing to the importance of sediments on the transport, fate and bioavailability of EDCs, investigations on the sediment contamination of EDCs have been widely carried out (Naylor et al, 1992;Hale et al, 2000;Isobe et al, 2001;Heemken et al, 2001;López de Alda et al, 2002;Jonkers et al, 2003;Rice et al, 2003;Li et al, 2004a,b;Patrolecco et al, 2004;Chen et al, 2006;Fu et al, 2007;Labadie et al, 2007), and phenolic xenoestrogens with high levels were reported worldwide. For example, the sedimentary concentrations of nonylphenol and octylphenol were up to 72,000 ng/g and 1800 ng/ g dw, respectively, from Hamilton Harbor of the Great Lakes, Canada, which was highly impacted by anthropogenic activities (Bennie et al, 1997).…”

Sequential ASE extraction of alkylphenols from sediments: Occurrence and environmental implications

“…Compared with the other aquatic surface sediments (Fig. 3), the concentrations of total APs in this study are generally higher than most of those reported for other areas of the world, and lower than those of the two samples in the Hamilton Harbor site, Canada [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. High concentrations of APs were reported for other highly industrialized and urbanized areas, such as Hamilton Harbor of the Great Lakes (up to 72,000 ng/g dw of NP and 1800 ng/g dw of OP) [38], Virginia (USA) sediments adjacent to STPs and outfall (up to 14,100 ng/g dw) [23], and Jamaica Bay (NY, USA)(up to 13,700 ng/g dw of NP and 45 ng/g dw of OP) [25].…”

Nonylphenol mass transfer from field-aged sediments and subsequent biodegradation in reactors mimicking different river conditions

“…Branched nonylphenol was used as model compound for aerobically biodegradable non-halogenated organic pollutants that are persistent under anaerobic conditions, because (1) it is a pollutant found in many river systems (Bennie et al 1997;Heemken et al 2001;Navarro et al 2009;Wu et al 2007), (2) it can cause toxicological effects on aquatic biota because of its estrogenic activity, although concentrations are mainly present below effect concentrations (Soares et al 2008), (3) it adsorbs to and desorbs from sediments (de Weert et al 2008), and (4) is biodegradable under aerobic conditions, but persistent under anaerobic conditions (Corvini et al 2006).…”