Endocrine Disruptors in India’s Drinking Water

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This article is a part of the essay series: World Water Week 2025

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous substances that interfere with the standard operation of the hormone (endocrine) system. Biologically, EDCs can mimic hormones, attach to hormone receptors, or otherwise disrupt hormone synthesis, degradation, and signalling. In practical terms, EDCs can usurp the body's chemical messengers and can potentially trigger a cascade of dysfunctions in growth, metabolism, reproduction, and development. Notorious offenders include industrial chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) found in plastics, pesticide active ingredients such as DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), medical hormones such as synthetic estrogens, and persistent pollutants such as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). Yet, in India's water policy and public health debate, EDCs are invisible – unregulated in drinking water standards and largely not even included in routine monitoring.

Invisible in the Water

A growing body of Indian research is detecting various endocrine disruptors in water sources, from rivers and lakes to groundwater, and even treated tap water. These studies, often localised, reveal that EDC contamination is a current reality in India’s water supply chain. Key findings include:

• Dehradun, Uttarakhand: Wastewater samples from municipal treatment plants showed high levels of estrogenic hormones. A 2023 study recorded estrone concentrations up to 95 µg/L in raw sewage influent, the highest ever reported globally for this estrogen. Even after treatment, estrone was not effectively removed; in fact, “negative removal” was observed, meaning that the effluent sometimes had higher concentrations than the influent. Researchers warn that such estrogenic load in wastewater can lead to feminisation of aquatic organisms and reproductive disruption in wildlife, and potentially contribute to hormone-related cancers. This suggests that conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are ill-equipped to handle EDCs, allowing these chemicals to pass into downstream waters.
• Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh: A survey evaluated source waters and drinking water in Jabalpur for plasticisers (phthalate esters) and BPA. The findings showed that phthalates were widespread in winter samples, with the plasticiser DEHP (di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate) detected at levels up to 8,351.85 µg/L (8.35 mg/L) in drinking water. This concentration was far beyond safe levels — for comparison, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) established DEHP standards at 6–8 µg/L. Summer levels were reduced (up to ~410 µg/L), indicating seasonality, but nevertheless problematic. The analysis demonstrates seasonal spikes, more pronounced in dry winter, perhaps due to limited dilution and greater leaching at lower temperatures. It also provides concrete evidence that India's treated drinking water is already contaminated with EDCs from plastic sources, allegedly due to source contamination and leaching within the distribution system.
• Thrissur, Kerala: A pilot study in Thrissur found that using PET(polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles for storing warm or boiled water can leach detectable EDCs into the water. Over time, phthalate levels and the metal antimony (used as a catalyst in PET plastic) increased in the stored water. Although concentrations of phthalates and antimony in this study were below acute health thresholds, the researchers flagged the cumulative risk of chronic exposure, especially as antimony release accelerated with higher temperatures and longer use.
• Chennai, Tamil Nadu (Coastal): Peri-urban Chennai has experienced rapid industrialisation, resulting in the pollution of its water bodies by long-lasting, “forever chemicals”. A 2024 Indian Institute of Technology Madras study identified that PFAS were detected in surface water and groundwater around Chennai. PFAS levels in treated drinking water exiting the plant were higher than the raw water, indicating that conventional treatment (sand filtration, chlorination, etc.) does not eliminate PFAS and, in fact, will concentrate them. Another study in the Chennai coastal aquifer (Ennore–Manali industrial belt) found polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are oil- and coal-based carcinogenic hydrocarbons, in groundwater, with high concentrations due to a decades-old leak from a petroleum tank. The contamination had persisted for over 50 years in the aquifer, demonstrating the stability of petroleum-based EDC contamination.

Thus, are these contaminants found in sewage, treated water, or the drinking supply? The answer appears to be all of the above. EDCs can lurk from the raw sewage stage, through partially treated effluents, and all the way to treated drinking water if controls are absent. This pervasive presence in different water system compartments makes EDCs especially insidious.

India's extensive application of pesticides in agriculture makes its rural aquifers and streams vulnerable to contamination by agrochemicals, which are known or suspected endocrine disruptors.

How EDCs Enter our Systems

A significant route is via municipal sewage and wastewater effluents. EDCs originate from human excreta (e.g. natural hormones, birth-control residues like ethinylestradiol), pharmaceuticals and personal care products, and household chemicals that get washed down drains. Most Indian wastewater treatment plants are not designed to eliminate micropollutants like EDCs. Studies confirm that conventional WWTPs fail to remove compounds like hormones, triclosan, and phthalates, leading to their “pass-through” into rivers and lakes. India's extensive application of pesticides in agriculture makes its rural aquifers and streams vulnerable to contamination by agrochemicals, which are known or suspected endocrine disruptors. Legacy organochlorine pesticides (such as DDT, aldrin, heptachlor, endosulfan) persist in the soil and migrate into groundwater for decades following application. Even the very pipes and containers used in the distribution of water can contain EDCs.

An often overlooked pathway is also the discharge of hormone drugs, antibiotics, and other bioactive chemicals from pharmaceutical manufacturing units and hospitals. Improper effluent treatment at factories (pharmaceutical industry clusters) can release residues of synthetic hormones (such as progesterone and estradiol used in contraceptives or hormone therapy) and other potent compounds.

Regulatory Silence

India’s regulatory and monitoring frameworks have been largely silent on EDCs in water. The national drinking water standard (BIS IS 10500:2012 specification) and the norms set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) do not explicitly address most EDCs. A handful of legacy pollutants are covered – for example, BIS prescribes safe limits for a short list of pesticides (like DDT, HCH isomers, and aldrin) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as well as some heavy metals. However, critical classes of EDCs such as pharmaceutical hormones, phthalates, BPA, and PFAS are absent from any Indian drinking water standards or routine monitoring requirements. There is no mandate to test tap water or source water for these emerging contaminants.

The Indian regulatory silence on EDCs also means there is minimal pressure on industries and municipal utilities to even measure these pollutants, let alone control them.

By contrast, international standards are rapidly evolving to incorporate EDC considerations. The European Union’s recast Drinking Water Directive (2020) explicitly targets endocrine disruptors and other emerging pollutants. The EU has introduced a watch list mechanism that currently requires member states to monitor two known EDCs – beta-estradiol (a natural estrogen) and nonylphenol (an industrial surfactant) – in their water supplies as an early warning system.

The Indian regulatory silence on EDCs also means there is minimal pressure on industries and municipal utilities to even measure these pollutants, let alone control them. There is also a data gap: very few long-term studies or surveillance programmes exist to quantify EDC levels in water nationwide. The Jabalpur study noted the lack of any baseline data in India for phthalates/BPA in drinking water prior to the authors’ research. Even when troubling findings emerge from academic studies, the response can be dismissive: in Tamil Nadu, authorities denied that Chennai’s water had PFAS issues, citing their own testing. This highlights a need for upgrading our monitoring systems.

Towards a Safer Glass of Water

India’s battle with EDCs cannot be won by laboratory equipment alone; it needs policies that put everyday drinkers of tap water at the centre of the response. Four practical moves could make that difference.

1. India should adopt a dedicated regulatory framework for EDCs in water. This involves modifying the BIS drinking water standards and CPCB guidelines to develop health-based standards of limits for major endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
2. Detecting EDCs means working in billionths of a gram. Equipping state and city laboratories with high-resolution Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) or Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) instruments and training technicians can turn occasional academic studies into routine public monitoring. Annual open-data surveys of rivers and groundwater would reassure citizens in safe districts and trigger red flags when invisible chemicals creep in.
3. For drinking water treatment plants, activated carbon adsorption, ozonation, advanced oxidation (AOP), and membrane filtration (ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis) are proven methods to reduce organic micropollutants and PFAS. Retrofitting large municipal plants with activated carbon filters, advanced oxidation, and membrane barriers can stop EDCs at the tap.
4. Simple, decentralised fixes — such as constructed wetlands that let reeds and microbes digest hormones, and small-footprint bio-reactors that clip phthalates — offer made-for-India solutions for hospital effluents and industrial estates. Communities can observe the wetland, watch the water clear, and know it is working.

India’s water pollution challenge has entered a new era. By updating regulations, investing in better water treatment, closely monitoring our water sources, and educating the public, India can reduce the threat of EDCs before it becomes a silent health crisis. This approach will protect the health of our people and also serve as a model for other developing nations facing the same challenge.

K.S. Uplabdh Gopal is an Associate Fellow with the Health Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation.

• Water
• India
• agrochemical water pollution
• edc contamination
• edc in water
• endocrine disrupting chemicals
• endocrine disruptors in water
• micropollutants in wastewater
• water pollution in india

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