A national risk assessment for intersex in fish arising from steroid estrogens

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Abstract
The occurrence of intersex fish is widespread in the rivers of England and Wales. The extent of intersex in fish populations is believed to be strongly linked to their exposure to steroid estrogens. The present study presents, to our knowledge, the first national, catchment-based risk assessment for steroid estrogens in the world. A graphical information system–based model predicted the concentrations of estradiol (E2), estrone, and ethinylestradiol, which were combined and compared with known biological effect levels to predict the risk of endocrine disruption for 10,313 individual river reaches (21,452 km) receiving effluent from more than 2,000 sewage treatment plants serving more than 29 million people. The large scale of this assessment underlines the usefulness of computer-based risk assessment methods. Overall, 39% of the modeled reaches (all percentages are in terms of the total river length modeled) in England and Wales were predicted to be not at risk from endocrine disruption (mean concentrations, 10 ng/L E2 equivalents). Many of these high-risk reaches, however, were ditches, which were composed almost entirely of sewage effluent. The model could be applied equally well to any other chemical of concern emanating from the human population that would be impractical to assess by measurement.

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