The Greater Pittsburgh Area is famous for its three rivers: the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers. These rivers have a history of being polluted by decades of mine runoff and chemicals released by industrial sites. New problems, such as pollution from endocrine disrupting compounds and xenoestrogens, have recently been discovered in this well known aquatic environment and are suspected to be caused by the failing sewer system. Personal care products, pharmaceuticals and plasticizers all have the potential to enter the water supply though both treated and untreated sewage. Many of these compounds are known or suspected endocrine disruptors.
Estrogenic potential of fish extracts from flesh/fat tissue captured from Freeport and Ford City was studied via the E-Screen Assay on MCF-7, T47D and BT-20 human breast cancer cell lines. Results showed weak estrogenic responses in both MCF-7 and T47D cell lines, with no significant differences for fish gender, weight, or sample location.
Estrogenic potential of extracts from fish brain tissue was tested via Bromodeoxyuridine MCF-7 Analysis and paired with High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry to investigate the presence of specific xenoestrogens in the fish extracts. Fifty eight fish were sampled from rivers in the Greater Pittsburgh Area. All samples were non-detectable for methyl, ethyl, propyl and butyl parabens. Bisphenol A (BPA) was detected in 44 of the 58 samples, with a range from non-detectable to 120 pg/gram. The Harmarville sample location had higher results for all analyses when compared to all other sample sites.
In summary, this dissertation supported all previous available literature leading to the conclusion that parabens are safe to remain on the market and are not a significant environmental concern. In particular, there does not seem to be any need for concern over paraben levels detected in the Greater Pittsburgh Area river system and water supply. The BPA portion of this research was in agreement with previous literature as to its bioconcentration tendencies; however, new implications regarding the public health significance of the effects from BPA in brain tissue may require some re-evaluation of concerns about BPA transport and fate in the environment around Pittsburgh and elsewhere.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04032011-220807 |
| Date | 29 June 2011 |
| Creators | Renz, Lara M |
| Contributors | Dr. Patricia Eagon, Dr. Conrad Volz, Dr. James Peterson, Dr. Ravi Sharma |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04032011-220807/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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