Caffeine as an indicator of estrogenic activity in source water

Abstract

Caffeine has already been used as an indicator of anthropogenic impacts, especially the ones related to the disposal of sewage in water bodies. In this work, the presence of caffeine has been correlated with the estrogenic activity of water samples measured using the BLYES assay. After testing 96 surface water samples, it was concluded that caffeine can be used to prioritize samples to be tested for estrogenic activity in water quality programs evaluating emerging contaminants with endocrine disruptor activity.