Occurrence of (anti)estrogenic effects in surface sediment from an e-waste disassembly region in East China.

Because of the report on the abnormal local fertility rate at Taizhou area, which is a famous e-waste disassembly center in China, the hormone-like effects in the surface sediment from the local river was investigated. Compared to the control site DG, significant estrogenic effects (p < 0.01) were observed at e-waste recycling sites ranging from 6.01 to 29.31 nmol/kg dw E2 equivalents by water extraction while ranging from 20.47 to 135.02 nmol/kg dw by organic extraction. When coincubated with E2, the water and the organic extractions displayed significant (p < 0.01) synergistic and anti-estrogenic effects respectively.