Estrogenic chemicals have attracted considerable scientific and public attention during the past decade due to their occurrence in aquatic environments and their endocrine disruption potential. Among these estrogenic chemicals, a group of synthetic steroids is of particular concern. This concern raises in part from the increasing use of birth-control pills, formulated with exogeneous estrogenic and progestational chemicals that show high physiological activity at very low concentrations and have been associated to certain alarming effects on reproduction and developmental processes such as feminization, decreased fertility or hermaphroditism. In this study, 17a-ethinylestradiol (EE2), a major constituent of common contraceptive pills, and two other estrogenic hormones, estrone (E1) and 17b-estradiol (E2), have been determined in Acushnet River Estuary seawater using a GC-MS technique. Among three estrogenic compounds detected, EE2 has the highest concentration, up to 4.7 ng/L, at which EE2 may affect lobster and other fish abundance in the coastal seawater due to its high biological activity on fish feminization. Although EE2 is persistent to microbial degradation, it can undergo a rapid photodegradation in the estuarine seawater under natural sunlight irradiation, with a half-life of less than 1.5 days in the spring sunny days.
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Back to The 33rd Northeast Regional Meeting (July 14-17, 2005)