ESTABELECIMENTO DE CONDIÇÕES ANALÍTICAS PARA DETERMINAÇÃO DE HORMÔNIOS ESTRÓGENOS EM ÁGUA POTÁVEL DISTRIBUÍDA NA CIDADE DE SÃO LUÍS-MA

Abstract

Given the humanity perception of necessity to preserve the environment and the incessant search for sustainable development, today the preservation of natural water sources is by far one of the most worrying factors for the preservation of life. Besides the most common aquatics pollutants, also there is one called emerging pollutants, which in recent decades have been detected due the technological advances. These involve mainly the organic micropollutants, which present the endocrine disrupters (ED's) main group. Among the ED's, the natural and synthetic sex steroids hormones have significant importance because their daily use in medicine, in the replacement therapy and contraceptive methods, which has contributed to the continuous release in domestic sewage. There are several consequences of this effect, including fertility declining, occurrence of various cancers and disorders in the development and homeostasis of organisms. The domestic and industrial sewage and leaching from agricultural fields fertilized with sludge from sewage treatment plants (STP's) are the main sources of contamination. This study allowed the chromatographic separation of the hormones estriol (E3), 17 β-estradiol (E2), estrone (E1) and 17 α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) in relatively short duration (16,5 minutes), using the acetonitrile:water (ACN: H2O) mixture as mobile phase in gradient mode, constant flow of 1 mL min-1, injection volume of 20 μL, λ = 280 nm and temperature of 27 ºC. The method was developed in two laboratories, involving different instruments. Four procedures and two adsorbents (C18 e OPT) of SPE were tested. The sample preparation method, including dechlorination and the SPE procedure with C18 cartridge, resulted in the recovery values within the acceptable limit. The developed method was validated according to guidelines of the ANVISA`s Guide for Validation, and bioanalytical methods was adapted for this study. The method was then applied in the analysis of the natural (17β-estradiol, estrone and estriol) and the synthetic (17α-ethinylestradiol) hormone in drinking water from the city of São Luís Peaks were not identified for the substances studied, probably substances concentrations below the limits of detection and quantification of the method were found.