Passive sampling and in vitro assays to monitor antiandrogens in a river affected by wastewater discharge

Karem Elkayar; Jeong-Ann Park; Marco Pineda; Paul Westlund; Viviane Yargeau

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150067

Passive sampling and in vitro assays to monitor antiandrogens in a river affected by wastewater discharge

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Jan 15:804:150067. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150067. Epub 2021 Sep 4.

Authors

Karem Elkayar¹, Jeong-Ann Park², Marco Pineda¹, Paul Westlund¹, Viviane Yargeau³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University, Montréal H3A 0C5, Québec, Canada.
² Department of Environmental Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University, Montréal H3A 0C5, Québec, Canada. Electronic address: viviane.yargeau@mcgill.ca.

PMID: 34509830
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150067

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products, antibiotics, estrogens, and antiandrogens are found widely in aquatic environments. Monitoring studies by sampling surface water and effluents of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been conducted recently to monitor antiandrogens, which, along with estrogens, cause endocrine disruption. However, few studies have investigated antiandrogenic activity (AA) combined with a chemical analyses of emerging antiandrogens. Therefore, we analyzed the presence and persistence of 12 types of antiandrogens, atrazine, and carbamazepine using grab sampling and polar organic chemical integrative sampler (POCIS) along a river affected by WWTP discharges. Water and sediment samples were collected from the WWTP effluent (WW), as well as upstream (US) and downstream (DS) of the WWTP. We detected only tebuconazole, triclosan, propiconazole, and fluconazole during the two sampling campaigns in 2016 and 2017. Grab sampling of the site WW detected tebuconazole (7-77 ng/L), propiconazole (5-47 ng/L), and fluconazole (6-45 ng/L). However, the concentrations in the river water were below the detection limits. Nevertheless, fluconazole and triclosan were detected by POCIS in the site WW (45.7 and 26.8 ng/L, respectively) and all river samples ranges of 0.3-9.3 and 2.4-3.7, respectively. This detection was attributed to the limit of quantification of POCIS being lower than that of grab sampling. Nilutamide and triclosan were detected in the river sediment, suggesting that their concentrations in the water column were at least partly attenuated through sediment sorption. We also observed AA by analyzing POCIS extracts with the yeast androgen screen assay. The highest AA was found in the site WW and it was still observable several kilometers downstream of the point of discharge despite decreasing. Therefore, the WWTP effluent was most likely contributor to the persistent AA in the river.

Keywords: Antiandrogen activity; Antiandrogens; Effluents; POCIS; River; WWTPs.

MeSH terms

Androgen Antagonists
Environmental Monitoring
Rivers
Wastewater* / analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Androgen Antagonists
Waste Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical