The age-old problem of pollution, its role in endocrine disruption and the current analytical technologies that can be employed to monitor and assess waste water treatment plants

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Water scarcity is a global problem and pollution of this valuable resource is a growing concern. South Africa is no exception. As part of an on-going study aimed at developing decentralized water treatment systems based on biomimicry design, this project aimed to evaluate and optimize analytical methods that can be used to evaluate the efficiency of these systems in removing compounds with endocrine disrupting properties. In addition, this project also aimed to show the possible consequences if pollutants are not removed by investigating the effects of a number of endocrine disrupting chemicals in combination with one another and in combination with natural human hormones. This should provide a more realistic view of how a combination of pollutants that typically end up in the environment due to pollution can adversely affect organisms, and by extension, the ecosystem. It should also contribute to our understanding of how common pollutants that gets applied on the skin as personal care products (PCPs) can possibly influence human health and be linked to diseases such as breast cancer.The first aim resulted in a method that can be used to isolate, identify and quantify 11 endocrine disrupting chemicals (3 hormones, 1 synthetic hormone analog, 4 PCPs, 2 plasticizers and 1 anticonvulsant) and one human indicator. The method uses solid phase extraction to isolate compounds, dansyl chloride derivatization of compounds to enhance mass spectrometry detection and a novel super-critical fluid chromatography system, called an ultra-performance convergence chromatography (UPC2) system, coupled to tandem mass spectrometry for detection and quantification of each compound. This method can be used to evaluate the removal efficiency of waste water treatment systems. However, method validation revealed additional optimization and simplification should beconsidered. The second aim yielded data that showed the combined effect four common PCP pollutants as either being additive, antagonistic or synergistic. The data highlights how these PCPs can possibly interfere with the endocrine system of humans and animals if used as PCPs or are found in environment as pollutants. Finally, the data also suggest how common PCPs can influence diseases such as breast cancer.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University