Detection of bisphenol A, cumylphenol and parabens in surface waters of Greater Poland Voivodeship

- 5 parabens, bisphenol A and cumylphenol were determined by SPE and LC-MS/MS.
- 15 Polish rivers and lakes were analyzed for 7 endocrine disruptors during 18 months.
- Methyl-, ethyl-, propylparaben and bisphenol A were found in every tested sample.
- Cumylphenol was determined only in a few samples.
- The results were compared with over a dozen other studies.

Amounts of bisphenol A (BPA), 4-cumylphenol (CP) and 5 parabens - methylparaben (MP), ethylparaben (EP), propylparaben (PP), butylparaben (BP) and benzylparaben (BzP) in Greater Poland Voivodeship's surface waters are reported. The water samples were collected from selected 15 locations in 2015-2016 at seven different time points: in March, June, August, and October 2015 and March, June, and September 2016. MP was found in every tested sample with typical concentration at several dozen nanograms per liter and the highest level almost 1600 ng L−1 in a sample collected from the Warta River in October 2015. The other four parabens were determined at considerably lower concentrations than MP at levels not exceeding 100 ng L−1 with PP found at the highest and BzP at the lowest levels. BPA was determined at similar concentration level to parabens - between 5 ng L−1 and 95 ng L−1 and CP was found only in a limited number of samples. Noticeable seasonal changes of paraben concentrations were found showing that for these compounds the pollutant release factor dominates both the biodegradation factor and the water volume factor. These seasonal changes were not observed for BPA and CP. Out of all determined parabens only MP was found at considerably higher concentrations than BPA. However, MP's endocrine properties are much lower than those of BPA posing a lower environmental impact potential than BPA. Influence of other (more endocrine disrupting) parabens is also relatively weak in comparison to BPA due to their considerably lower concentrations in the environment.