Review: &lt;i&gt;Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) as endocrine disrupting contaminants (EDCs) in South African surface waters&lt;/i&gt;

Edward Archer,Gideon M Wolfaardt,Johannes H Van Wyk

doi:10.4314/wsa.v43i4.16

Review: <i>Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) as endocrine disrupting contaminants (EDCs) in South African surface waters</i>

Edward Archer, Gideon M Wolfaardt + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4314/wsa.v43i4.16

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Abstract

CITATION: Archer, E., Wolfaardt, G. M., Van Wyk, J. H. 2017. Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) as endocrine disrupting contaminants (EDCs) in South African surface waters. Water SA, 43(4):684-706, doi:10.4314/wsa.v43i4.16.

Highlights

Fresh water is an essential resource for the survival of all life on earth
The performance of the wastewater treatment works (WWTWs) to remove pathogens and pollutants depends on several factors, such as the type of deployed treatment technologies, capacity, hydraulic retention time, as well as stakeholder requirements of the plant
Several in-vitro and in-vivo toxicological studies have shown the potential of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) to alter endocrine system pathways (Table 2), and many of these compounds have been detected within South African environmental waters and WWTW effluents (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Fresh water is an essential resource for the survival of all life on earth. It is globally recognised that humans are creating great pressure on the quality of our water resources by means of anthropogenic (man-made) pollutants entering freshwater systems (WHO, 2012). Studies indicating the monitoring of PPCPs within South African waters are on the increase (Table 1), there is still a lack of research effort towards correlating these levels of micro-pollutants with potential sub-lethal toxicological endpoints (such as endocrine disruption) for risk assessment.

Results

Conclusion