The aim of this study was to look into the effects of the phenol bisphenol A (BPA) and the artificial estrogen ethinyl-estradiol (EE2), two endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), which are obiquitous in the environment, as a consequence of their usage. We examined their effects on the water flea Daphnia magna, using two methods for toxicity-testing: 1) an acute toxicity test as per ISO 6341:2012 and 2) a chronic toxicity test as per OECD Guideline no. 211. For the later we also tested the effects of mixtures of these compounds. We calculated the 24 h EC50 and 48 h EC50 values for the acute toxicity tests for BPA, which was not possible for EE2, because of a lack of quantifiable effects. In our chronic tests, we looked into the effects of our test-compounds on the number of mobile juveniles per female, the molting-frequency of the later and their size at the end of the tests. We found significant effects of tests with BPA at 10 mg/L (individualy and in mixtures) on the number of mobile juveniles per female and on the end-of-test size of the females, but not on their molting-frequency, with the exception of a mixture with 10 mg/L BPA and 1 μg/L EE2. Tests with a BPA concentration of 1 mg/L individualy and in mixtures did not show any significant effects, which also holds true for tests with EE2 individualy. We concluded that EDCs impact the reproductive potential and lower the reproduction-abilty of the aquatic organisms used in this study.
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