What level of estrogenic activity determined by in vitro assays in municipal waste waters can be considered as safe?

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Authors

JAROŠOVÁ Barbora BLÁHA Luděk GIESY JP HILSCHEROVÁ Klára

Year of publication 2014
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Environment International
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412013002985
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2013.12.009
Field Water pollution and control
Keywords Estrogen; Threshold; In vitro assay; Environmental risk assessment; Waste water treatment plant
Description In vitro assays are broadly used tools to evaluate the estrogenic activity in Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) effluents and their receiving rivers. Since potencies of individual estrogens to induce in vitro and in vivo responses can differ it is not possible to directly evaluate risks based on in vitro measures of estrogenic activity. Estrone, 17beta-estradiol, 17alfa-ethinylestradiol and to some extent, estriol have been shown to be responsible for the majority of in vitro estrogenic activity of municipal WWTP effluents. Therefore, in the present study safe concentrations of Estrogenic Equivalents (EEQs-SSE) in municipal WWTP effluents were derived based on simplified assumption that the steroid estrogens are responsible for all estrogenicity determined with particular in vitro assays. EEQs-SSEs were derived using the bioassay and testing protocol-specific in vitro potencies of steroid estrogens, in vivo predicted no effect concentration (PNECs) of these compounds, and their relative contributions to the overall estrogenicity detected in municipal WWTP effluents. EEQs-SSEs for 15 individual bioassays varied from 0.1 to 0.4 ng EEQ/L. The EEQs-SSEs are supposed to be increased by use of location-specific dilution factors of WWTP effluents entering receiving rivers. They are applicable to municipal wastewater and rivers close to their discharges, but not to industrial waste waters. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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