**Acknowledgements**

**No. ANALYTES**

DEET

4-*tert*-octylphenol

22

**5. Summary**

potential [94,95].

influence of EDCs.

**SAMPLE TYPE**

192 Emerging Pollutants in the Environment - Current and Further Implications

Surface and groundwat er

**EXTRACTION**

SPE (Oasis HLB)

Wastewater SPE (C18) GC-MS

4-nonylphenol 329 ng/dm3 Bisphenol A 457 ng/dm3 Estrone 63 ng/dm3 17α-ethynylestradiol 48 ng/dm3

**Table 7.** Concentrations of selected EDCs determined in environmental samples using instrumental methods.

The poor state of knowledge about the mechanisms of action and effects of EDC chemicals has forced the interdisciplinary scientific teams to intensify their work in the subject. Nowadays, many institutes are carrying out research focused on exploring the properties and metabolic pathways of EDCs and their mixtures in the environment. Good knowledge about the environmental fate, endocrine potential, and distant toxic effects of ecoestrogens will allow to estimate the levels of the pollution and minimal exposure on certain compounds. Moreover, this knowledge can be applied for upgrading the common tools used to detect and perform quantitative determination of EDCs, and can be the basis for the development of new techni‐ ques that will provide information about the composition of the sample and about its endocrine

The discovery of micropollutants occurring in the environment resulted in new methodologies being put into the analytical practice. These methodologies are developed in two different directions. The first is based on methodological solutions designed to detect, identify, and determine xenobiotics that occur in various environmental samples. For this purpose, instru‐ mental methods such as gas and liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry detection are usually used. These techniques provide reliable information about the presence, quantity, and

The second approach is to put into the analytical practice new bioanalytical methodologies. These methodologies allow estimation of the sample endocrine potential, but they do not provide information on which of the sample ingredient is responsible for causing the toxic effect. The results of the analysis of this biological response are valuable source of information for chemists and ecotoxicologists. These results can be the basis for estimating the endocrine potential of the environment exhibited by certain species. Moreover, bioanalytical techniques may be supplementary to the techniques of quantitative and qualitative determination of

**DETECTION TECHNIQUE**

LC-MS

**LOD**

**Measured concentratio n**

2.3–3.3

85 ng/dm3

ng/dm3 [89]

**REFERENCE S**

[90]

The work has been co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education grant no. IP2011 028071.
