Ta. Ternes et al., Behavior and occurrence of estrogens in municipal sewage treatment plants - I. Investigations in Germany, Canada and Brazil, SCI TOTAL E, 225(1-2), 1999, pp. 81-90
The developed method enables the quantification of estrogens in sewage samp
les down to 1 ng/l and in river water down to 0.5 ng/l. Mean recoveries of
the analytes in ground water after SPE extraction, clean-up and derivatizat
ion generally exceeded 75%. The determined R.S.D. varied from 0 to 14% at a
spiking revel of 0.05 mu g/l. Even in the raw influent and the final efflu
ent from municipal STPs the mean recoveries of estrogens were mostly above
70%. Using this method the behavior and occurrence of natural estrogens and
synthetic contraceptives in municipal sewage treatment plants (STP) were i
nvestigated in German and Canadian facilities. In the sewage of a German mu
nicipal STP close to Frankfurt/Main 17 beta-estradiol and estrone were dete
rmined, with mean concentrations of 0.015 mu g/l and 0.027 mu g/l, respecti
vely. In two investigated municipal STPs, 17 beta-estradiol and 16 alpha-hy
droxyestrone were eliminated with a higher efficiency than 17 alpha-ethinyl
estradiol and estrone. In Canadian and German STP discharges estrone, 17 be
ta-estradiol, 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol and 16a-hydroxyestrone were frequen
tly detected within the lower ng/l-range. A maximum concentration was found
for estrone with 70 ng/l. In 15 investigated German rivers and streams onl
y estrone was present with a maximum concentration of 1.6 ng/l. (C) 1999 El
sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.