title: The arrival and discharge of conjugated estrogens from a range of different sewage treatment plants in the UK.
abstract: The occurrence of free and conjugated estrogens was examined in a survey of eleven sewage treatment plants (STPs) and their discharge water in the United Kingdom using grab sampling. The STPs included trickling filter with and without tertiary treatment, and activated sludge with tertiary treatment. For three activated sludge plants both influent and effluent samples were compared. For a further 8STPs only the effluent was examined. The estrone-3-sulphate, estradiol-3-sulphate and estriol-3-sulphate concentrations (up to 20 ng L(-1)) were typically 5-fold that of the respective free estrogen concentration in the effluents. This represents a substantial additional 'potential' estrogen load arriving in the receiving waters. Estrone-3-glucuronide was found at 9 ng L(-1), estradiol-3-glucuronide at 7 ng L(-1), and estriol-3-glucuronide at 32 ng L(-1) in sewage influent. Except on one occasion, no glucuronide conjugates could be found in the effluent. The results suggest in most cases glucuronide conjugates will be completely transformed in sewage treatment whilst sulphate conjugates will only be partially removed.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Environmental Quality Management, Kyoto University, 1-2 Yumihama, Otsu, Shiga 520-0811, Japan. vimalk.hatwal@gmail.com
authors.forename: Vimal
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Norihide
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nakada
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yasojima
authors.forename: Naoyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Andrew C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004958:Estradiol / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000032:analysis; D004964:Estriol / Q000032:analysis; D004967:Estrogens / Q000032:analysis*; D004970:Estrone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000032:analysis; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry; D012722:Sewage / Q000737:chemistry*; D006113:United Kingdom; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D004967:Estrogens; D012722:Sewage; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D004970:Estrone; C028628:estradiol-3-sulfate; D004958:Estradiol; D004964:Estriol; C017296:estrone sulfate