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Comparison of in vitro estrogenic activity and estrogen concentrations in source and treated waters from 25 U.S. drinking water treatment plants
Citation:
Conley, J., H. Mash, N. Evans, K. Schenck, L. Rosenblum, S. Glassmeyer, E. Furlong, D. Kolpin, AND V. Wilson. Comparison of in vitro estrogenic activity and estrogen concentrations in source and treated waters from 25 U.S. drinking water treatment plants. SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT. Elsevier BV, AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, , N/A, (2016).
Impact/Purpose:
In vitro bioassays have been successfully used to screen for estrogenic activity in wastewater and surface water, however, few have been applied to treated drinking water. NOTE: Fact Sheet was cleared at a later date as an internal report in STICS ORD-011973 per Dr. Vickie Wilson 9/2015-jw.
Description:
In vitro bioassays have been successfully used to screen for estrogenic activity in wastewater and surface water, however, few have been applied to treated drinking water. Here, extracts of source and treated drinking water samples were assayed for estrogenic activity using T47D-KBluc cells and analyzed by LC-MS/MS for natural and synthetic estrogens (including estrone, 17B-estradiol, estriol, and ethinyl estradiol). There were no analytical detections of estrogens in treated samples and 5 detections (estrone only) in source samples, whereas 3 treated samples and 16 source samples displayed in vitro estrogenicity. Estrone accounted for the majority of estrogenic activity in respective samples, however the remaining 15 samples that displayed estrogenic activity had no detections of estrogenic compounds by chemical analyses. Source water estrogenicity (max, 0.54 ng l7B-estradiol equivalents (E2Eq) L-1) was below levels that have been linked to adverse effects in fish and other aquatic organisms. Treated drinking water estrogenicity (max, 0.079 ng E2Eq L-1) was considerably below levels that are expected to be biologically relevant to human consumers. Overall, the advantage of using in vitro techniques over analytical chemical determinations alone was displayed by the sensitivity of the T47D-KBluc bioassay, coupled with the ability to measure cumulative effects of mixtures, specifically when unknown chemicals may be present.
