Bisphénol A : Premiers résultats sur le bassin de la Seine
Résumé
The 2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)propane or bisphenol A is a xenobiotic commonly used as a monomer in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastics (DVD, building materials) and epoxy resins (surface lacquer for cans and tin cans). Despite its endocrine disrupting potential, and its high media coverage because of baby bottles made with bisphenol A, few data are available on environmental matrices and more particularly in France. In this context, levels of bisphenol A found in urban and surface waters were assessed by the Leesu laboratory, as a part of the Piren-Seine and Opur research programs. The first results, on dissolved phases, reveal concentrations ranging from 562 to 2,100 ng/L in wastewater (n = 5) and combined sewer overflows (n = 8) and from 19 to 157 ng/L in wastewater treatment plant effluents (n = 19). Furthermore, an increase of concentration was observed in the Seine River (n = 33) from upstream sites (18 ng/L) to downstream sites (40 and 62 ng/L). At last, an estimated annual mass balance of bisphenol A was established between loads annually discharged by the wastewater treatment plants and combined sewer overflows, on the one hand, and the annual exported load by the Seine River downstream of the Parisian conurbation, on the other hand. The first estimations highlight that urban sources linked to sanitation only account, at the annually scale, for 12% of Seine River contamination.