Human Health Risk-based Prioritization of Endocrine-disrupting Chemicals in Water: A Perspective

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (“EDCs”, hereafter) have attracted special attention due to its reported toxic effects on children, pregnant woman and elderly. Current EDC-based prioritization approaches do not explicitly include human health risks. This study proposed a theoretical perspective on development of a human health risk-based prioritization framework for monitoring endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in water (termed as “EDCriskrank” framework, hereafter), addressing the issue of selecting prioritized EDCs based on human health risk criterion. Applicability of the proposed EDCriskrank framework is illustrated by preparing teratogenicity-based priority list using endocrine-disrupting chemicals in U.S. finished drinking with specific focus for pregnant women. The teratogenicity-based list consisted of endocrinedisrupting chemicals in following order (in increasing priority): Flumequine < 19-norethisterone < mestranol = estriol (out of 5 endocrine-disrupting chemicals considered). The developed list could be used for monitoring chemicals in water and explicitly incorporates teratogenicity-based human health risks as compared to other studies. Future work involves implementation of the proposed framework for Indian waters is required to help Indian wastewater treatment plant operators in protecting human health.