The annual production of sludges is significant all over the world, and large amounts of sludges have been improperly disposed by random dumping. The contaminants in these sludges may leak into the surrounding soils, surface and groundwater, or be blown into the atmosphere, thereby causing adverse effects to human health. In this study, the (anti-)androgenic activities in organic extracts of sludges produced from both industrial and domestic wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were examined using reporter gene assay based on MDA-kb2 cell lines and the potential (anti-)androgenic risks were assessed using hazard index (HI) based on bioassays. Twelve of the 18 samples exhibited androgen receptor (AR) antagonistic activities, with AR antagonistic equivalents ranging from 1.2 × 10² μg flutamide/g sludge to 1.8 × 10⁴ μg flutamide/g sludge; however, no AR agonistic activity was detected in any of the tested samples. These 12 sludges were all from chemical WWTPs; no sludges from domestic WWTPs displayed AR antagonistic activity. Aside from wastewater source, treatment scale and technology could also influence AR antagonistic potencies. The HI values of all the 12 sludges exceeded 1.0, and the highest HI value was above 3.0 × 10³ for children; this indicates that these sludges might cause adverse effects to human health and that children are at a greater risk than adults. The anti-androgenic potencies and risks of the subdivided fractions were also determined, and medium-polar and polar fractions were found to have relatively high detection rates and contribution rates to the AR antagonistic potencies and risks of the raw sample extracts.

污泥的年产量在世界范围内都很重要，大量的污泥由于不规则的倾倒而被不当处置。这些污泥中的污染物可能泄漏到周围的土壤，地表和地下水中，或者被吹入大气中，从而对人体健康造成不利影响。在这项研究中，使用基于MDA-kb2细胞系的报告基因测定法检测了工业和家庭废水处理厂（WWTP）产生的污泥有机提取物中的（抗）雄激素活性以及潜在的（抗）雄激素风险通过基于生物测定的危害指数（HI）进行评估。18个样品中有12个表现出雄激素受体（AR）拮抗活性，AR拮抗当量范围为1.2×10 ² 微克氟他胺/克污泥至1.8×10 ⁴ 微克氟他酰胺/克污泥; 但是，在任何测试样品中均未检测到AR激动活性。这12种污泥全部来自化学废水处理厂。没有来自家庭污水处理厂的污泥显示出AR拮抗活性。除了废水来源，处理规模和技术也可能影响AR的拮抗效力。所有12种污泥的HI值均超过1.0，最高HI值高于3.0×10 ³为孩子; 这表明这些污泥可能对人类健康造成不利影响，并且儿童的危险性要比成人高。还确定了细分级分的抗雄激素能力和风险，发现中极性和极性级分具有相对较高的检出率和对原始样品提取物的AR拮抗力和风险的贡献率。