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Steroidal Sex Hormones in our Water Supply

Kathryn BradfieldJune 25th, 2007


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IntroductionMillions of women worldwide use hormones in the form of birth control and hormonereplacement drugs each day. In the course of the day, excess hormones are flushed downtoilets and are piped to water treatment facilities. Steroidal sex hormones have been found iconcentrations of around 1ng/liter in drinking water, which is a low level but still activephysiologically for organisms. (Bodzek and Dudziak 2005)

Although estrogens have always been excreted by animals, current data shows that there isan increase in synthetic forms of steroidal sex hormones in municipal water effluent fromhouseholds, hospitals and pharmaceutical plants which is accumulating in European streams.(Bodzek and Dudziak 2005)

Researchers in Colorado have seen a change in the fish tissue which they believe is related tochemical effluent from the surrounding communities. University of Colorado researchers havfound that ninety percent of the white suckers swimming downstream of a water treatmentplant on Boulder Creek were female. Upstream, there was an even split between the male andfemale populations in these fish. (Woodling, Norris, Maldonado, Vajda, Lopez, 2005)The research atthis site also has shown a contraceptive effect on male fish, producing less sperm and also

finding oocytes in testicular tissue in male fish. Researchers have linked this to the elevatedlevels of steroidal sex hormones in the water.

This table shows the number of intersex fish and the abundance of female fish in the Colorado researc

sites. Woodling, et al

This paper attempts to examine the available raw data on estrogen levels in water supplies inorder to see if the data found in European streams (Bodzek and Dudziak 2005) and in BoulderCreek, Colorado are more than localized trends.

Table 1


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MethodsRaw data from U.S. Geological Survey open-file report 02-94 taken and analyzed using simplestatistical techniques. This water-quality data was collected during 1999 and 2000. A total of139 streams in 30 states were sampled and analyzed for 95 different organic wastewatercontaminants, including levels of the most important estrogen hormones (estradiol, estriol,and estrone). In this paper, 73 of these stream sites were analyzed for the levels of these

steroidal contaminants. These values were then compared to the minimum levels ofhormones known to effect organisms which are reported in literature.

Data (U.S. Geological Survey open-file report 02-94)

Sitecode

(Stateand

Site #)

Date(month-day-

year)

Time(24-hour

)

Typeof

sample

Estriol(50-27-

1)

Estrone(53-16-

7)

17a-estradiol(57-91-

0)

17b-estradiol(50-28-

2)

17a-ethynyl

estradiol(57-63-6)

AR06 5/4/1999 2050 do.


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MN03 10/3/2000 1115 regular 0.0200


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Table 3

WI02 4/23/1999 910 do.


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2000, 34, 5059-5066.

Bodzek, Dudziak, 2006 Elimination of steroidal sex hormones by conventional water treatment andmembrane processes Desalination 198 (2006) 2432

Purdom, C. E.; Hardiman, P. A.; Bye, V. J.; Eno, N. C.; Tyler, C. R.; Sumpter, J. P.; 1994 Chem.Ecol. 1994, 8, 275-285.

Routledge, E. J.; Sheahan, D.; Desbrow, C.; Sumpter, J. P.;1998 Waldock, M.Environ. Sci. Technol.1998 32, 1559-1565.

Sedlak, Schlenk, Spies, Kolodziej, Loyo-Rosales, 2006Identifying the Causes of Feminization ofChinook Salmon in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River System University of California, Berkeley;University of California, Riverside

Woodling, Lopez, Maldonado, Norris, Vajda, 2006Intersex and other reproductive disruption of fishin wastewater effluent dominated Colorado streams Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part C 144(2006) 1015