Seasonal variation and partitioning of endocrine disrupting chemicals in waters and sediments of the Pearl River system, South China

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) were seasonally investigated in surface water, suspended particulate matter, and sediments of the Pearl River Delta (PRD), South China. EDC concentrations in the surface water were generally higher in the summer than in winter. The surface water in the investigated rivers was heavily contaminated by the phenolic xenoestrogens. Moreover, the in-situ log Ksoc and log Kpoc values and their regression with log Kow in the field experiments suggest that binding mechanisms other than hydrophobic interaction are present for the sedimentary organic carbon and particulate organic carbon (SOC/POC). The logKsoc-logKow and logKpoc-logKow regression analyses imply that higher complexity of nonhydrophobic interactions with EDCs is present on the SOC samples comparing with the POC samples, which is related to their different sources.