Chronic effects of bisphenol A and three structural analogues on freshwater snails and amphipods

Structural analogues of bisphenol A (BPA) are rapidly increasing in production and environmental concentrations, although a complete ecotoxicological assessment is still lacking. This study addresses chronic effects on reproduction of the selected bisphenols BPA, BPF, BPS, and BPAF in two aquatic invertebrates, the freshwater snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum and the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca. The reproductive output of snails was significantly enhanced at almost all tested nominal bisphenol concentrations ranging from 1 to 100 µg/L. The NOECs for BPA, BPS, and BPAF are below the lowest measured concentration. There was no significant reproductive effect on the amphipods in the tested concentration range (3.2 to 2000 µg/L), apart from a decrease in reproduction due to increasing mortality at the highest concentrations of BPA, BPF, and BPAF. All four bisphenols had a similar impact on the reproduction of the snails at environmentally relevant concentrations. Increases in the energy allocated to reproduction could negatively impact the survival of the population, ultimately also affecting the ecosystem. BPA analogues display a similar ecotoxicological hazard on the reproduction of the snails as BPA itself, therefore making their increasing production and release into the environment problematic.