Estrogenic Wastewater Treatment Works Effluents Reduce Egg Production in Fish
- 17 March 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Environmental Science & Technology
- Vol. 43 (8), 2976-2982
- https://doi.org/10.1021/es803103c
Abstract
Estrogenic chemicals found within wastewater treatment work (WwTW) effluents have been shown individually to inhibit reproduction in fish, but the impact of the WwTW effluents themselves and the complex mixtures of environmental estrogens and other endocrine disrupting chemicals they contain has not been established. In this investigation, the effect of exposure to three WwTW effluents, with differing levels of estrogenic activity, was assessed on egg production in pair-breeding fathead minnow. Exposure to two of the three effluents tested resulted in a reduced egg production (by 28% for effluent I at a dilution of 50% and by 44% for effluent III at full strength), which was proportional to the estrogenic content of the effluents. The test effluents, however, had a greater effect on egg production than might be expected, on the basis of both the response they induced for induction of vitellogenin (an estrogen exposure biomarker) and when compared with an equivalent estrogen exposure to EE2. These data show that reliance on relatively simple biomarker responses for estrogenic activity alone, such as vitellogenin, can significantly underestimate the impacts of estrogenic WwTW effluents on fitness parameters such as reproductive health that are regulated by more complex estrogenic (and other endocrine) signaling mechanisms.Keywords
This publication has 35 references indexed in Scilit:
- Altered Sexual Development in Roach (Rutilus rutilus) Exposed to Environmental Concentrations of the Pharmaceutical 17α-Ethinylestradiol and Associated Expression Dynamics of Aromatases and Estrogen ReceptorsToxicological Sciences, 2008
- Associations between altered vitellogenin concentrations and adverse health effects in fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas)Aquatic Toxicology, 2007
- Collapse of a fish population after exposure to a synthetic estrogenProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2007
- Life-cycle exposure of fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) to an ethinylestradiol concentration below 1 ng/L reduces egg fertilization success and demasculinizes malesEnvironmental Toxicology and Water Quality, 2005
- Long-Term Exposure to Environmental Concentrations of the Pharmaceutical Ethynylestradiol Causes Reproductive Failure in FishEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 2004
- Effects of 4‐nonylphenol on reproduction of japanese medaka, Oryzias latipesEnvironmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 2003
- Effects of the synthetic estrogen 17α‐ethinylestradiol on the life‐cycle of the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas)Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 2001
- Development of a Reproductive Performance Test for Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Using Pair-Breeding Fathead Minnows (Pimephales promelas)Environmental Science & Technology, 2000
- Health Effects of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals on Wildlife, with Special Reference to the European SituationCritical Reviews in Toxicology, 2000
- Hormonal induction of sex reversal in fishAquaculture, 1995