Thyroid-Disrupting Activities of Groundwater from a Riverbank Filtration System in Wuchang City, China: Seasonal Distribution and Human Health Risk Assessment

Dongdong Kong,Hedan Liu,Yafei Wang,Jian Li,Yun Liu

doi:10.1155/2020/2437082

Abstract

The recombinant thyroid hormone receptor (TR) gene yeast assay was used to evaluate thyroid disruption caused by groundwater from the riverbank filtration (RBF) system in Wuchang City, China. To investigate seasonal fluctuations, groundwater was collected during three seasons. Although no TR agonistic activity was found, many water samples exhibited TR antagonistic activity. The bioassay-derived amiodarone hydrochloride (AH) equivalents ranged from 2.99 to 274.40 μg/L. Water samples collected from the riverbank filtration system during the dry season had higher TR antagonistic activity. All samples presented adverse 3,3′,5-triiodo-L-thyronine (T3) equivalent levels, ranging from −2.00 to −2.12 μg/kg. Following exposure to water samples with substantial TR antagonist activity, predicted hormonal changes in humans of different gender and age ranged from 0.65 to 1.48 μg/kg of T3, being 47% to 231% of normal. No obvious difference was found between genders or among age groups. Overall, the results revealed that the RBF system could remove the thyroid-disrupting chemicals in the river water to some extent. Considering the varying degrees of risk to human health, further treatment is needed to remove the potential thyroid-disrupting chemicals in pumping water after riverbank filtration to ensure drinking water safety.

Highlights

Guest Editor: Lisa Yu e recombinant thyroid hormone receptor (TR) gene yeast assay was used to evaluate thyroid disruption caused by groundwater from the riverbank filtration (RBF) system in Wuchang City, China
To examine the β-galactosidase inhibition induced by the interaction of thyroiddisrupting chemicals (TDCs) with TR, we tested the proficiency of the bioassay system as described in Appendix A. ese results suggested that the water samples did not suppress the TR gene expression (Appendix A, Figure A1)
TR antagonistic activities were found in groundwater samples, ranging from 9.00% to 25.91%, the maximum inhibition rate of GW-6 during the wet season was 40.41%. e corresponding amiodarone hydrochloride (AH) equivalents (AEQ) ranged from 2.99 to 274.40 μg/L AH (Figure 4)

Summary

Introduction

Guest Editor: Lisa Yu e recombinant thyroid hormone receptor (TR) gene yeast assay was used to evaluate thyroid disruption caused by groundwater from the riverbank filtration (RBF) system in Wuchang City, China. Plotan et al implemented a new RA method for human health by comparing the levels of exposure from samples with the established 17β-estradiol acceptable daily intake (ADI) and estimated daily consumption of estradiol through drinking water and an omnivorous diet [7]. Using this approach, new toxicological findings (i.e., endocrine disruption and mixture toxicity) could be integrated; RA values can be calculated with respect to different receptors by gender and age, which is effective in the assessment of estrogenic chemicals in the environmental medium [7]

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