PROJECT DETAILS


  • Project No 3004
  • Project Name Safety of recycled water for end users determined by a mouse in vivo multigenerational study
  • Lead Organisation Water Research Australia
  • Research Lead Flinders University
  • Main Researcher Fiona Young
  • Completion Year 2014

Project Description

Wastewater often contains endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) such as ethinyl estradiol (EE2) which is excreted by women who use some oral contraceptive pills. When wastewater treatment is followed by advanced recycling processes, most of the hormone-like EDCs are removed, but it is possible that these very low levels might still adversely affect health. Giving recycled water to mice will allow examination of these health risks but it is first necessary to develop methods to measure extremely low levels of three forms of estrogen (estrone, estradiol and EE2), as well as progesterone and bisphenol A (BPA), an EDC that leaches out of plastic drinking bottles. This research modified clinical ‘ELISA’ tests commonly used to measure hormones in patient blood samples, and established protocols that allowed the sensitive quantification of five EDCs in recycled water.