Abstract

Endocrine disruptors in water impose risks to reproductive health and they come majorly from chemical contamination in water from a variety of sources. This may include byproducts formed during water disinfection processes, domestic cross contamination between shallow wells and soak a-ways, industrial discharges, livestock activity, and therapeutic drugs released into sewages. Most of these compounds are known to possess endocrine disrupting potentials (the so called Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals-EDCs). EDCs have been found to affect the endocrine system and subsequently impair the fertility in non-human animals as well as humans too. In this current study, four water samples were aseptically obtained from different sources in order to investigate the level of these chemicals in them. The sources include: tap water from public supply, borehole, local hand dug well water, and effluent from some industrial discharges. They were collected between the months of August and September 2023 from all the four local government council covering Kaduna Metropolis of Nigeria. This is with a view to determining the amount of some EDC's particularly Bisphenols and phthalate in the water. Liquid-liquid extraction, column chromatographic clean-up and capillary Gas chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) were used to quantify amounts of some of these EDCs. Levels of phthalates in water samples from the Tap, Well and Borehole water ranged from 1.46 µg/l-2.02 µg/l, while a concentration of 4.02µg/l in industrial water for both Bisphenol and phthalates were also recorded. Generally, levels found in the water except for the industrial water were all within the criterion of 3 µg/l recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) for drinking water. The implication of these findings is hereby elaborated.

DOI: doi.org/10.63721/25JGEAS01103

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