ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS IN THE AQUATIC
ENVIRONMENT:
THE SOUTH AFRICAN RESEARCH PROGRAMME

Introduction and Historical perspective
South Africa is a country that use and abuse most of the chemicals listed in most
developed and developing countries as potential endocrine disrupting contaminants
(EDC’s), including DDT to combat the malaria epidemic. The impacts on wildlife and
human endocrine systems of the classic EDCs and that of others have not been
assessed in South Africa. It is only recently that a new National Water Act (No 36 of
1998) has been promulgated, however, the establishment of regulatory guidelines along
with the development of a National Toxicant Monitoring Programme, which will include
EDCs, was only recently initiated.
Following on several of the South African Water Research Commission (WRC) funded
projects related to potential EDC pollution (Meintjies et al., 1998), pesticide pollution in
agriculture areas (Channing 1998; London et al., 2000) and main water catchments
(Heath et al., 1999), the WRC funded a project (1998- ) to specifically set-up bioassays
to assess estrogenicity in the natural water resources in the Western Cape agricultural
region (van Wyk et al., 2002a) and later extended this projects with further development,
validation and implementation of bioassays to include assessments of androgenic,
thyroid and immune system disruption (WRC Project K5/1253). Several research
groups started to implement chemical analyses and existing first tier screens for
estrogenicity, for example, yeast screen, e-screen (MCF-7-cell line) and receptor binding
assays, to selectively screen water samples or assess estrogenicity of chemicals. Most
of these groups established collaboration with international groups to facilitate
technology transfer


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