• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.263-270
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• 2004

A method is described for the analysis of short-chain alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs), 4-octylphenol-di-ethoxylate (OP2EO) and 4-nonylphenol-di-ethoxylate (NP2EO), in drinking water or wastewater using reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The solvent system was water and methanol containing $10{\mu}M$ trifluoroacetic acid as an ionization solvent. We acidified 1 L of water samples to less than pH 2 with concentrated $H_2SO_4$ and loaded onto Sep-Pak $C_{18}$, and eluted with acetone. The calibration of OP2EO and NP2EO was performed for the concentration range from 20 to 500 ng/L and the correlation coefficients were 0.999 and 0.990, respectively. The limits of detection were 20 ng/L (OP2EO) and 50 ng/L (NP2EO) at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. Accuracy and precision of this analytical method were 85.8 ~ 122.1% and 8.2 ~ 18.8%, respectively. The proposed method allowed a sensitive and rapid detection of OP2EO and NP2EO and it could be applied for monitoring of APEOs from environmental samples.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.416-423
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• 2000

There is a growing concern that a wide variety of chemicals released into the environment can disrupt the endocrine system of fish, wildlife and humans. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) include pesticides such as DDT lindane and atrazine, the food packaging chemicals, phthalates and bisphenol A, alkylphenol ethoxylate detergents and the chemical industry by-products, dioxins. Xenoestrogens in the environment have been argued about health risk, because of estrogen mimetic chemicals are exposed only small amounts to human. A number of in vivo and in vitro assays are now in use to assess the activity of xenoestrogens in the environment. A human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) was used to develop in vitro screening assay for the detection of xenoestrogenic environmental pollutants. The E-SCREEN (MCF7-BUS) assay is proposed as a reliable, easy and rapid-to-perform method. To optimize and validate this method before it can be used routinely, several phenol compounds and pesticides suspected to be estrogenic were tested using I-SCREEN assay. The results showed that this method is a valuable tool for screening potential estrogen-mimicking environmental pollutants and quantitative determination of estrogeniciy.