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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Toxicol.
Sec. Regulatory Toxicology
Volume 6 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/ftox.2024.1439126
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging topics on chemical safety assessment View all 4 articles
The use of in vitro bioassays and chemical screening to assess the impact of a minimally processed vegetable facility on wastewater quality
Provisionally accepted- 1 University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
- 2 National Metrology Institute of South Africa (NMISA), Pretoria, South Africa
Fruit and vegetable processing facilities may contaminate wastewater via contaminants found in the produce and disinfecting chemicals used. These contaminants may include agrochemicals, pesticides, and disinfectants such as chlorine and quaternary ammonium compounds. Some compounds may exhibit harmful endocrine-disrupting activity. This study investigated the impact of a minimally processed vegetable facility on wastewater quality via in vitro bioassays and chemical screening. Estrogen activity was assessed via a yeast estrogen screen, and (anti-)androgenic and glucocorticoid activities were evaluated via an MDA-kb2 reporter gene assay. The samples were screened via gas and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS) to identify target compounds, and GC coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOFMS) was used for nontargeted screening. Sample complexity and chemical profiles were assessed using GC-TOFMS. Estrogenic activity was detected in 16 samples (n=24) with an upper limit of 595±37 ng/L estradiol equivalents (EEqs). The final wastewater before discharge had an EEq of 0.23 ng/L, which is the ecological effect-based trigger value for the estrogenic activity of wastewater (0.2-0.4 ng/L EEq). Androgenic activity was detected in one sample with a dihydrotestosterone equivalent (DHTEq) value of 10±2.7 ng/L. No antiandrogenic activity was detected. The GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS results indicated the presence of multiple pesticides, nonylphenols, triclocarban, and triclosan. Many of these compounds exhibit estrogenic activity, which may explain positive YES assay findings. These findings showed that wastewater from the facility contained detergents, disinfectants, and pesticides and displayed hormonal activity. Food processing facilities release large volumes of wastewater, which may affect the quality of the water eventually being discharged into the environment. We recommend expanding conventional water quality monitoring efforts to include additional factors like endocrine activity and disinfectant byproducts.
Keywords: Food processing facility, endocrine disrupting chemicals, In vitro bioassays, Estrogenic activity, Disinfectants, Pesticides, chemical screening, wastewater
Received: 27 May 2024; Accepted: 23 Aug 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 ANECK-HAHN, Van Zijl, Quinn, Swiegelaar, Nhlapo, de Bruin and Korsten. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Natalie ANECK-HAHN, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Magdalena C. Van Zijl, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Laura Quinn, National Metrology Institute of South Africa (NMISA), Pretoria, 0040, South Africa
Caitlin Swiegelaar, National Metrology Institute of South Africa (NMISA), Pretoria, 0040, South Africa
Nontete Nhlapo, National Metrology Institute of South Africa (NMISA), Pretoria, 0040, South Africa
Willeke de Bruin, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
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