Chemical monitoring and temporal variation in levels of endocrine disrupting chemicals (priority phenols and phthalate esters) from selected wastewater treatment plant and freshwater systems in Republic of South Africa

► Routes of the EDC congeners into the environment are mainly through anthropogenic sources. ► DBP is the most dominant of the PEs accounting for 50% of the total PE congeners in the study. ► POH, 2CP and PCP were the dominating congeners among phenolic compounds. ► The profiling pattern for 2,4-DMP showed that they are often detected in the final effluent.