Abstract
Endocrine disrupting pollutants (EDPs) are a group of exogenous chemicals affecting the endocrine function causing adverse health effects such as pubertal changes, neurotoxicity, malfunctioning of the human reproductive system, and carcinoma. EDPs are comprised of pharmaceuticals, personal care products (PCP), antibiotics, surfactants, etc. generally found as a micropollutant in raw and treated effluents from municipal wastewater treatment plants. Apart from photocatalytic degradation, bioremediation techniques like algal bioreactors, constructed wetlands, and aerobic granular sludge are reported to achieve nearly 80% removal efficiency while treating pharmaceuticals, surfactants, or other emerging pollutant containing wastewater loaded with EDPs in approximately 1 ng/L–500 µg/L of range. Since EDPs possess recalcitrant groups like polychlorinated biphenyls or phthalates and identified as trace contaminants in municipal wastewater, slow biodegradation and the requirement of sophisticated detection and remediation methods are the major challenges toward successful bioremediation. This scenario justifies the need of developing efficient, integrated, economic biological treatment strategies along with modification of existing biotechnologies to treat EDPs in municipal wastewater. This chapter provides an insight into the occurrence, classification, hormonal and toxicological characteristics of EDPs along with emerging bioremediation techniques, challenges, and future research prospects.