Assessing estrogenic activity and reproductive toxicity of organic extracts in WWTP effluents

•The organic pollutants in local municipal wastewater were consisted of two major categories, benzenes and Phthalates.•The Secondary treatment and Tertiary treatment was able to remove organic pollutants from the municipal wastewater mixed with large of industry wastewater.•As regards the sensitivity of measurement, the four immature mouse uterotrophic responses in an increasing order were found to be uterine ERα intensity < uterine wet weight ratio < uterine epithelial cell height < uterine gland number.

Trace level organic contaminants might not be completely removed from the municipal wastewater and the safety incurred by them had become a concern. These organic pollutants were extracted from water samples and detected by GC-MS. The estrogenic activity of the organic was tested using Yeast Estrogen Screen to detect the transcriptional activation of the estrogen receptor (ER) and immature mouse uterotrophic bioassays to study reproductive toxicity. The results of GC-MS demonstrated the organic extracts in the municipal wastewater and the WWTP effluents Included two major categories, benzenes and Phthalates. The estrogenic activity of organic extracts from the secondary effluent (SE) and tertiary effluent (TE) was below that of the raw wastewater (RW). Results of uterotrophic bioassay demonstrated that SE would bring some potential hazards on animals while TE was relatively safe.