Environmental Pollution Investigations And Environmental Rist Assessment Studies Of Steroid Hormones

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are chemicals with the potential to elicit negative effects on endocrine systems of humans and wildlife, and have obtained special attention from many governments and environmental protection organizations. With a deep understanding of EDCs, steroid hormone compounds have been confirmed a stronger role in endocrine disruption. In recent years, for fast monitoring of the environmental steroid hormones, sensitive, rapid and simple analytical methods is important. Health risk assessments of steroid hormones are necessary for environmental protection and environmental management.In this study, we developed a sensitive and specific multi-residue method for analyzing25steroid hormones including seven estrogens, six androgens, five progestogens and seven glucocorticoids in water samples using HLB-UPLC-MS/MS analysis, and then applied to analyze their concentrations in various aquatic samples to study the occurrence and behavior of steroid hormones in sewage treatment plants (STPs), lakes and rivers of Nanjing and the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province. Finally, discuss the health risk assessment of steroid hormone in source water.The research contents and results are as thefollowings:(1) Establishment multi-residue analytical methods for steroid hormones in the aquatic environmentA high sensitive, accurate and effective method for the simultaneous detection of25steroid hormones using ultra performance liquid chromatography with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) under multiple reaction monitoring mode (MRM) was developed. The effects of composition and gradient elution program of the mobile phase on the separation and MS parameters, such as capillary voltage, cone voltage and collision energy were investigated and optimized. Using external standard method for quantitative analysis, the correlation coefficients of standard curve are good. Under the optimized conditions, the limits of detection are from1.49to10.59ng/L, the limits of quantification are from5.12to35.30ng/L. The method is high sensitive, reproducible, simple and fast.A pre-treatment method for the simultaneous extraction of25steroid hormones in environmental water samples using HLB cartridge was developed. The various influential factors such as the elution solvent and volume, pH adjustment of water samples and rinsing solution were investigated. At20ng/L,50ng/L and100ng/L spiking levels, the recoveries were bigger than67.17%, and relative standard deviations (RSD, n=3) were less than12.62%. The method could meet the requirement for detecting trace steroid hormones residues in aquatic environments.(2) Distribution survey of steroid hormones in wast water treatment plants (WWTPs) in NanjingThe pollution status of25steroid hormones of WWTPs in Nanjing was surveyed by using established SPE-UPLC-MS/MS method. Results indicated that the removal efficiencies of WWTPs and pharmaceutical compositions are varied between the WWTPs. The results from the WWTPs showed that treatment process of WWTPs mainly focused on the removal of conventional pollutants, not taking into account the removal of trace steroid hormones.(3) Distribution survey of steroid hormones in surface waterThe pollution status of25steroid hormones in Nanjing lakes or rivers and the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province were surveyed by using established SPE-UPLC-MS-MS method. Results indicated that different concentrations and composition of the steroid hormone were detected in all of the15sampling stations. And higher concentration of corticosteroids at593.98ng/L was detected. Also the steroid hormone residues in surface water are largely affected by human activities, concentrations of hormone is higher in densely populated areas.(4) Health risk assessment of steroid hormones in drinking water sourcesWorld Health Organization (WHO) and the International Cancer Research (IARC) has not been elucidated the carcinogenicity of steroid hormones. There is not carcinogenic intensity factor, reference dose toxicology and other related parameters, so there are uncertainties during health risk assessment of steroid hormones in source water. To further study health risk assessment of steroid hormones in drinking water sources, quantitative description the effects of steroid hormones and health, uncertainty analysis of health risk assessment is discussed.