Abstract
There has been increasing concern about the impacts of exposure to chemical compounds with endocrine disrupting activities in the environment, especially aquatic environments, to wildlife and humans. South Africa is known to have used and abused most chemicals listed by developed and developing countries as endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Endocrinedisrupting chemicals have been reported in water, sediment and serum, as well as in fish tissue samples, at a level that could trigger endocrine disruption in humans and wildlife. Although some monitoring has been reported, particularly in water systems within the country, information on EDCs in other environmental matrices is scanty. The water systems monitored so far are very few. The strongest economy in Africa, and an emerging world economy depending on agriculture, mining, manufacturing and industry, needs to focus more on monitoring and to strengthen government organs and institutions to monitor and ensure environmental safety. Keywords : Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), phenols, phthalates, monitoring, South Africa
Highlights
The endocrine system, called the hormonal system, is one of the main systems for communicating, controlling and coordinating the body’s activities in mammals (Ying et al, 2004)
The mobility of Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) is increased when associated with fulvic or humic acids and particulates, which are often deposited in sediments, which usually determines their rates of transformation (Huang et al, 2008; Sun et al, 2006)
Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) has been included in Class B2 and has been shown to be embryotoxic and teratogenic (Altriste-Mondragon et al, 2003; Kayali et al, 2006; Latini et al, 2009), while butyl-benzyl phthalate (BBP) is in Class C and di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), di-ethyl phthalate (DEP) and dimethyl phthalate (DMP) were included in Class D (not yet classified as human carcinogens (AltristeMondragon et al, 2003)
Summary
The endocrine system, called the hormonal system, is one of the main systems for communicating, controlling and coordinating the body’s activities in mammals (Ying et al, 2004). There are increased incidences of abnormalities in human sexual and cognitive development in some societies with speculation that these are being caused by EDC exposure (Campbell et al, 2006; Falconer et al, 2006; Matthiessen, 2000; Suliman et al, 2006; Solomon and Schettler, 2000). Considering that many of these compounds can elicit estrogenic responses at very low concentrations (parts per billion to parts per trillion), there is need for concern as many of the phthalate esters and phenolic compounds have been found at measurable concentrations in wastewater, surface waters, sediments, groundwater, and even drinking water in many countries (Cai et al, 2003; Cortazar et al, 2005; Huang et al, 2008, Sha et al, 2007)
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