Esteróis e disruptores endócrinos em sedimentos como indicadores da contaminação no rio Acaraú

Abstract

Disposal of sewage is the main source of pollutants into aquatic environments, causing public health problems and negative impacts on the equilibrium of the ecosystem. The work was done in Acaraú River, northeast of Brazil. The study area has population growth and lack of effective sanitation in urban settlements close to the river. Therefore, the work is aimed at providing an environmental diagnostic of the study area evaluating contamination promoted by sewage disposal through the determination of sterols and endocrine disruptors (EDs) by gas chromatography equipped with mass detector. The concentration of coprostanol varied between 6 ng /g, and 124.09 ng /g. Concentrations, rations and principal components analysis suggest an incipient fecal contamination in the study area and a recent increase of sterols, including anthropogenic source, in the estuary of the River Acaraú. Synthetic EDs were quantified more significantly than the natural, which can be associated with lower Kow values and degradation of natural compounds. Diethylstilbestrol, Ethinyl Estradiol and Mestranol were the most representative EDs in the river Acaraú 46%, 18% and 20%, respectively. The arrangement of EDs suggests that in addition to the entries for the release of sewage into the environment, there are also contributions by activities such as agriculture, fish and shrimp farming. Despite an incipient contamination by disposal of sewage, identified by sterols, concentrations of EDs indicate that the study area there is already contamination that can cause negative impacts, through population growth in the region without an infrastructure to follow up this development and activities anthropic.