30. October 2018, Topic: Aquatic Ecotoxicology

How to detect endocrine disruptors in a cantonal lab

The Water Protection Laboratory of the Office for Waste, Water, Energy and Air (AWEL) is currently setting up a system to control the elimination of micropollutants in Zurich's wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). To this end, the authorities want to obtain an overview of the occurrence of estrogenic compounds in Zurich's WWTP. These substances pose a particular risk to surface waters as they already affect aquatic organisms at concentrations <1 ng/L. Various ISO-validated bioassays for measuring are available. In a joint project of AWEL and the Ecotox Centre, the yeast estrogen screen with lyticase (L-YES) and a commercial yeast estrogen screen (A-YES) will be used to analyse wastewater samples from selected Zurich WWTP. This will provide a data basis for the concentration of estrogenic substances in treated wastewater. The Ecotox Centre is also doing the ER Calux assay with a human cell line for a comprehensive comparison of methods.