Water a major source of endocrine-disrupting chemicals

[SCIENCE DIRECT] There's a lot of fearmongering about chemical/organic uv filters in sunscreens disrupting the body's hormones. And, well, it turns out water is a major source of this. I hope people don't stop consuming water...

Some notable quotes from the linked review about Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs):

• Water remains as the major sources of how humans and animals are exposed to EDCs. However, these toxic compounds cannot be completely biodegraded nor bioremediated from the aqueous medium with conventional treatment strategies thereby requiring much more efficient strategies to combat EDC contamination.

• EDCs are now known to target other nuclear receptors (androgen, progesterone, thyroid, and retinoid receptors), non-nuclear steroid and nonsteroid hormone receptors (dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin receptors), orphan receptors and other biochemical pathways involved in biosynthesis of steroids (Diamanti-Kandarakis et al., 2009). EDCs on binding to the endocrine receptors, they interact with the hormonal system by blocking, magnifying, or inactivating subsequent hormone action in an organism. As a result, the normal function of the endocrine systems is impaired (Rojas-Hucks et al., 2022). EDCs are however ubiquitous in the natural environment as they are common among products, that included packing materials of food and beverages, personal care pharma products, pesticides, fungicide, plastics, adhesives, plasticizers, electronic components, industrial solvents, and surfactants (Fig. 1)(Chen et al., 2022).

• The major sources through which these natural or synthetic compounds are exposed to humans and animals are though open flow or runoff of wastewater discharges from household sewages, industrial effluents, hospital wastes, livestock wastes, leaching at garbage dumping sites and agro-industrial effluents resulting in the direct contamination of EDCs into ground and surface waterbodies (Thacharodi et al., 2023; Zamri et al., 2021). Phenolic environmental estrogens such as BPA, DES (diethylstilbestrol), OP (octylphenol), NP (nonylphenol), and their corresponding ethoxylates are the most reported EDCs in drinking, underground and wastewater sources that are a cause of rising concerns as they affect human health adversely (Lv et al., 2016). Further, estrogenic compounds that are prescribed as a part of hormone therapies such as estrone-E1, 17β-estradiol-E2, estriol-E3, and 17-α-ethinylestradiol-EE2 are enlisted to be monitored in various water bodies as recommended by EU Commission Decision 495/2015 due to their toxicity even at trace levels (Hasni et al., 2023). Nonetheless, only trace levels of these chemicals are detected from environmental sources, which is sufficient to have adverse health effects, and thus, requires an efficient method of detection and remediation (Vieira et al., 2021). Numerous investigations have shown that even at low ng L⁻¹ levels, these EDCs can have physiological effects on aquatic lifeforms. Further, treatment methods that involves physical, chemical, and biological process are necessary to efficaciously remove these EDCs from the environment (Ashkanani et al., 2019). 

Also...I don't know who needs to hear this, but don't inhale or ingest your sunscreen because "[s]tudies have linked exposure to nano-TiO₂ with negative maternal and fetal health outcomes" (tested on rats).