Fate of 4-Nonylphenol in Applied Biosolids- Dana Devin Clarke U WA

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Fate of 4-Nonylphenol in Applied Biosolids- Dana
Devin Clarke U WA

• What is 4-Nonylphenol?
• 4-Nonylphenol (NP) is a degradation product of
  Nonylphenol polyethoxylates or NPEOs. These are
  chemicals used in the production of industrial
  and household cleaning products, textiles,
  petroleum, pulp and paper and pesticides
  (Hesselsoe, 2001).
• NP is generally formed as the NPEOs breakdown
  during wastewater treatment. Because NP is
  extremely hydrophobic, it binds to the
  surrounding organic matter. This results in the
  majority of NP from the plant to accumulate
  within the biosolids (Jacobsen, 2004).
• Why are we concerned with 4-NP?
• NP is a xenoestrogen, or a man-made molecule
  that mimics estrogen. NP can bind to the human
  estrogen receptor stimulating breast cancer cell
  growth (Topp and Starratt 2000). A study
  performed by Paul et al. 2000 revealed that male
  fetal sheep whose mothers grazed on wheat
  fertilized from biosolids exhibited a 32
  reduction in testis weight.
• Subsequently, it has been hypothesized that the
  use of biosolids in agriculture could lead to the
  exposure of livestock or humans through the
  introduction of NP into the food chain (Vikelsoe,
  2002).
• Project outline A greenhouse study was
  performed to determine the fate of 4-Nonylphenol
  in applied biosolids. This was accomplished by
  applying 5 treatments to soil columns and
  collecting the soil, water and vegetation samples
  at Day 0, 15, 30, and 45.
• Hypothesis
• 4-Nonylphenol will exhibit greater rates of
  degradation in the presence of vegetation than
  bare soil
• 4-Nonylphenol will not leach or be present in
  plant tissues and will remain static within the
  first 4 cm of the soil columns.
• Results at Day 30
• No NP has been found in plant tissue, leached
  water or at significant levels within the lower
  soil fractions