Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are used in a wide range of products of all day life. Due to their toxicological potential, an emerging focus is directed towards their exposure to humans. This study investigated the PFAS load of consumer products in a broad perspective. Perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (C4, C6–C8, C10-PFSA), carboxylic acids (C4–C14-PFCA) and fluorotelomer alcohols (4:2, 6:2; 8:2 and 10:2 FTOH) were analysed in 115 random samples of consumer products including textiles (outdoor materials), carpets, cleaning and impregnating agents, leather samples, baking and sandwich papers, paper baking forms and ski waxes. PFCA and PFSA were analysed by HPLC-MS/MS, whereas FTOH were detected by GC/CI-MS. Consumer products such as cleaning agents or some baking and sandwich papers show low or negligible PFSA and PFCA contents. On the other hand, high PFAS levels were identified in ski waxes (up to about 2000 μg/kg PFOA), leather samples (up to about 200 μg/kg PFBA and 120 μg/kg PFBS), outdoor textiles (up to 19 μg/m2 PFOA) and some other baking papers (up to 15 μg/m2 PFOA). Moreover, some test samples like carpet and leather samples and outdoor materials exceeded the EU regulatory threshold value for PFOS (1 μg/m2). A diverse mixture of PFASs can be found in consumer products for all fields of daily use in varying concentrations. This study proves the importance of screening and monitoring of consumer products for PFAS loads and the necessity for an action to regulate the use of PFASs, especially PFOA, in consumer products.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11356-015-4202-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Perfluorinated alkylated compounds (PFAA) have been identified in milk and dairy products at sub ppb levels, however, knowledge on the impact of industrial milk processing on PFAA levels is rare. This study examined industrial milk processing first by analytical screening of products of a cooperating dairy, which varied in kind and number of processing steps. Second, amounts of PFAA in raw milk, cream, skim milk, butter milk, and butter were mass balanced in industrial production. For migration testing, unpacked butter was sampled from the production and exposed to original packaging at 5 °C for 45 days. Screening identified dairy products with high fat contents to bear higher loads of PFAA. The mass balance of butter production revealed a significant impact of phase separation processes on concentrations in fat rich and aqueous phases. Storage of butter in packaging coated with a fluorinated polymer increased butter levels of both PFAA and FTOH.
The brominated flame retardant hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) was added to Annex A of the list of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) of the Stockholm Convention. Thus, production and use of HBCDD will be banned, and the recycling of HBCDD-containing foam waste will be restricted. In reaction a special polymeric brominated flame retardant (PolyFR) was developed to replace HBCDD in expanded and extruded polystyrene foams for building and construction applications. A decision has to be made at some future time whether expanded and extruded polystyrene foam waste is to be subjected to incineration (with HBCDD) or to recycling (without HBCDD). Therefore, an appropriate and rapid field method is required to distinguish between foams containing HBCDD and foams free from HBCDD. Here we present a screening method for identifying HBCDD containing expanded and extruded polystyrene foams. The test principle is based on the fact that PolyFR (a brominated polymeric macromolecule) is not extractable whereas HBCDD (a low molecular weight substance) is extractable. Following rapid extraction of HBCDD the brominated flame retardant is identified and quantified via bromine analysis using a handheld X-ray fluorescence instrument. The method was applied successfully to 27 expanded and extruded polystyrene foam samples (foams and extruded polystyrene foam raw materials), which were provided without any information about the applied flame retardant. The presence of HBCDD was confirmed for all HBCDD-positive samples in the test. A robustness test revealed a high degree of correctness and a high repeatability for the test system: samples containing HBCDD and HBCDD-free samples were identified correctly with relative standard deviations of quantitative results below 14%. Moreover, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy test results agree well with HBCDD determinations performed in a laboratory with a gas chromatograph coupled to a flame ionisation detector.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.