Abstract
Free estrogens (estrone, E1; 17β-estradiol, 17β-E2; estriol, E3; and 17α-ethinylestradiol, EE2), their corresponding sulfate and glucuronide conjugates, and bisphenol A (BPA) were investigated in water and sediments in the Fen River catchment, an arid and semiarid area in northwest China. E1 and BPA were frequently detected in the wet and dry sampling seasons. In addition to the sulfate conjugates, other conjugated estrogens were not detected in water and sediments. The concentrations of these compounds in water generally increased from upstream to downstream. The concentrations in water samples of most sites were higher in the wet season than those in the dry season, but concentrations in sediments of most sites were higher in the dry season than those in the wet season. The distributions of these compounds in sediments were positively correlated with the total organic carbon (TOC) contents of sediments (0.3 < R 2 < 0.6, p < 0.01) and concentrations in water (0.25 < R 2 < 0.50, p < 0.01). In this catchment, E1 was the main contributor to endocrine disrupting risk. The surface water in most of the tributaries and the sewage in the drainage channels were at risk. The pore waters of sediments were at risk at most sampling sites.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by Shanxi Province Science and Technology Foundation (2013011040-7). The authors also acknowledge supports by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (51609058), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016M602009), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JZ2015HGBZ0528; JZ2016HGTA0681).
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Detailed descriptions of the information of the sampling sites, the recoveries and method detection limits of these EDCs in water and sediments, estimated concentrations of estrogens and BPA in the pore water of sediments, and the relationships between E1 and BPA in sediments and those in water. (DOCX 70 kb)
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Liu, X., Shi, J., Bo, T. et al. Distributions and ecological risk assessment of estrogens and bisphenol A in an arid and semiarid area in northwest China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 7216–7225 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8434-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8434-6