Abstract
Various wastewater treatment plants located in Japan were evaluated for investigating behavior of estrogenic substances using in vitro recombinant yeast assay, enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and chemical analysis. Expressed in 17β-estradiol (E2) equivalent, total estrogen-like activities in influents were found 0.099μg·l-1 in sewage, 4.0μg·l-1 in treating animal wastewater and 0.25μg·l-1 in landfill leachate. The results indicated that 17β-estradiol (E2) (analyzed by EIA) contributed to estrogen-like activity (analyzed by yeast assay) in influents and treated effluents of sewage and treating animal wastewater. On the other hand, bisphenol A significantly contributed to estrogen-like activity in landfill leachate. The activities by yeast assay in some influents of sewage exceeded E2 concentration considerably, suggesting the presence of an unknown estrogenic substance. In these cases, it was found that sewage sample have the overestimation effect on the estrogen-like activity of E2. According these results, it is necessary to evaluate of estrogen-like activity in wastewater to consider effects of some contaminants in it.
