title: Behaviour of selected endocrine-disrupting chemicals in three sewage treatment plants of Beijing, China.
abstract: Occurrence and fate of eight kinds of selected endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) in three sewage treatment plants (STPs) of Beijing, China was investigated. These EDCs, composed of 4-octylphenol (4-OP), 4-n-nonylphenol (4-n-NP), bisphenol A (BPA), estrone (E1), 17alpha-estradiol (17alpha-E2), 17beta-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3) and 17alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2), in every step of STPs, were simultaneously analysed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry after derivatisation. All the EDCs were detected in the influents of three STPs, and BPA was the most abundant compound. The concentrations of EDCs ranged from 36.6 ng/l of 17alpha-E2 (STP C) to 1342.3 ng/l of BPA (STP B) in the influent sewages and from below limits of detection of E2 and E3 (STP C) to 142.5 ng/l of E1 (STP B) in the effluent sewages. The STPs could not remove alkylphenols effectively from the aqueous phase with less than 40% reduction. BPA decreased over 90%, and steroid estrogens achieved considerable reductions from 64.8% of E2 to 94.9% of E3. Generally, biological treatment was more effective in removing alkylphenols, BPA and natural estrogens from the aqueous phase than primary treatment. However, the synthetic estrogen, EE2, was mostly removed by the primary treatment with about 63.5% reduction. It is the first time that the concentration of 17alpha-E2 in the sewage of China was reported in this paper. The compound might have a bearing with the waste effluents of dairy farms around urban area of Beijing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Haidong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xiaolin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiahui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhi
authors.forename: Chengdui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Xianghua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Qunhui
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsuno
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D001559:Benzhydryl Compounds; D002681:China; D052244:Endocrine Disruptors / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D004958:Estradiol / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D004970:Estrone / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010636:Phenols / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D000098826:Bisphenol A Compounds
chemical_list: D001559:Benzhydryl Compounds; D052244:Endocrine Disruptors; D004958:Estradiol; D004970:Estrone; D010636:Phenols; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C025256:nonylphenol; C080417:4-octylphenol; C006780:bisphenol A; D000098826:Bisphenol A Compounds