Occurrence and treatment trials of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in wastewaters

This study demonstrates that both synthetic and natural endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) (e.g., bisphenol A, estrone and 17β-estradiol) were found in the crude wastewaters from two wastewater treatment works (WwTWs). Conventional biological processes can lower EDCs concentrations to several tens to hundreds ng l−1. Since natural EDCs (e.g., estrone and 17β-estradiol) have biological activity and adverse impact on the environment at extremely low concentrations (several tens of ng l−1), further treatment after conventional biological processes is required. Preliminary trials with ferrate(VI) and electrochemical oxidation process demonstrated that both processes can effectively reduce EDCs to very low levels, ranging between 10 and 100 ng l−1, but the former is more effective than the latter to reduce COD concentration in wastewater for given studying conditions.