<br/>The presence of trace chemical contaminants remaining after traditional wastewater remediation processes remains a major public concern. Amongst the contaminants of concern pharmaceutical known to mimic estrogenic steroids remain in wastewater effluent after traditional secondary treatment.  Even though they remain at low levels compared to the incoming waste influent they present a public safety concern due to their potential reproductive impacts on both aquatic organisms and humans. As such, the elimination of remaining steroidal activity through an advanced oxidation process (AOP) treatment is being considered by wastewater utilities. The AOP utilizes highly reactive radical species, typically the hydroxyl radical, that react with, and ultimately, mineralize unwanted chemicals. However, these processes are expensive, and the further reduction of estrogenic mimics through AOP is still not completely understood.  We aimed to determine the optimal AOP protocols for the elimination of steroid activity and determined the second order reaction rate constants for four estrogenic steroids and progesterone with a suite of important AOP radicals where kinetic data was collected using an electron pulse radiolysis system at the University of Notre Dame.  In addition, the extent of estrogenic steroid activity removal was investigated using an estrogen-responsive breast cancer cell line. The kinetic and activity data allow for mechanistic insight into the oxidative processes occurring and provides valuable data about AOP optimization and processes needed to completely remove estrogenic steroid activity found in treated wastewater.<br/>

Radical-induced degradation of estrogenic steroids in treated wastewaters

255th National Meeting (2018)

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