A review of contamination of surface-, ground-, and drinking water in Sweden by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs)

Banzhaf, Stefan; Filipovic, Marko; Lewis, Jeffrey; Sparrenbom, Charlotte; Barthel, Roland

doi:10.1007/s13280-016-0848-8

Cited by 163 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Perfluorinated acids (PFAs) have emerged as a new class of global environmental pollutants and have a wide range of industrial applications, such as fire-fighting foams, pesticides, and consumer applications including surface coatings for carpets, furniture, and paper products [1]. e unique physicochemical properties of perfluorinated compounds, such as high surface activity, thermal stability, and amphipathicity, are responsible for their industrial value, but they also contributed to the compounds' persistence in the environment and accumulation in biota [2,3]. PFAs persist in the environment as persistent organic pollutants, but unlike PCBs, they are not known to degrade by any natural processes due to the strength of the carbon-fluorine bond [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution and Bioaccumulation of Perfluoroalkyl Acids in Xiamen Coastal Waters

Dai

Zeng²

2019

Journal of Chemistry

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Since perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAs) are widely used and harmless to organisms, they have attracted great attention in recent years. e distribution of PFAs in the oceans all around the world is well documented. However, the study of PFAs in Xiamen could be a beneficial complement, for its unique geologies of no rivers that originate from other cities to influence the concentration of PFAs in this area. In this paper, six PFAs were analyzed in water, sediments, and organisms from both freshwater and seawater and the bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were calculated with the quantity of PFAs in different trophic levels of aquatic organisms. e results showed that the ΣPFA concentrations ranged from 7.66 to 11.98 ng·L − 1 for seawater samples and from 2.12 to 8.61 ng·L − 1 for freshwater. e concentration of ΣPFAs in sediments was 7.43-12.89 ng·g − 1 and 4.53-5.80 ng·g − 1 in seawater and freshwater, respectively. e PFA concentration in water is highly positive correlated with the PFA concentration in sediments (R 2 � 0.85). e calculated bioaccumulation factors (BCFs) were 6412-14254 L·kg − 1 and 2927-7959 L·kg − 1 for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonates (PFOS), respectively. PFOA seems more bioaccumulative than PFOS in seawater. e results illustrated the PFA pollution in the Xiamen sea area, and it is useful for the protection and control of the organic pollutants in this area.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution and Bioaccumulation of Perfluoroalkyl Acids in Xiamen Coastal Waters

Dai

Zeng²

2019

Journal of Chemistry

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“…Moreover, as discussed in the Introduction, sensitive methods would enable monitoring for new or unexpected contaminants on a regular basis, as suggested by Bader et al for water [22, 23]. Although the melamine scandal involved positive samples of liquid milk and yogurt in a very high concentration interval of 2.5 to 10 mg/kg [3], reports of “emerging risks” more often include considerably lower concentrations and hence, sensitive methods would be beneficial, as in the mentioned Swedish PFAS scandal where only up to 10 μg/L in outgoing drinking water was reported [4]. The applicability of the method to other matrices than milk will probably be highly dependent on the interference of the food matrix compounds, the critical point being the variation between samples within a food group, and hence whether representative food reference samples are available.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a consequence of the melamine adulteration, almost 300,000 babies were taken ill and 6 died as reported by the Ministry of Health, China, at the end of that year [2, 3]. More recent examples of unexpected food-related contamination of public concern are PFAS and related compounds in drinking water in several countries in Europe and the USA, e.g., in Sweden in 2012 [4, 5], and fipronil in Dutch eggs spread in Europe in 2017 [6]. Again, the compounds were unexpected and therefore not screened for until it was too late to prevent them from being widely spread, and some contaminated Swedish sources of raw water can still (year 2017) not be used for drinking water production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-targeted analysis of unexpected food contaminants using LC-HRMS

et al. 2018

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A non-target analysis method for unexpected contaminants in food is described. Many current methods referred to as “non-target” are capable of detecting hundreds or even thousands of contaminants. However, they will typically still miss all other possible contaminants. Instead, a metabolomics approach might be used to obtain “true non-target” analysis. In the present work, such a method was optimized for improved detection capability at low concentrations. The method was evaluated using 19 chemically diverse model compounds spiked into milk samples to mimic unknown contamination. Other milk samples were used as reference samples. All samples were analyzed with UHPLC-TOF-MS (ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry), using reversed-phase chromatography and electrospray ionization in positive mode. Data evaluation was performed by the software TracMass 2. No target lists of specific compounds were used to search for the contaminants. Instead, the software was used to sort out all features only occurring in the spiked sample data, i.e., the workflow resembled a metabolomics approach. Procedures for chemical identification of peaks were outside the scope of the study. Method, study design, and settings in the software were optimized to minimize manual evaluation and faulty or irrelevant hits and to maximize hit rate of the spiked compounds. A practical detection limit was established at 25 μg/kg. At this concentration, most compounds (17 out of 19) were detected as intact precursor ions, as fragments or as adducts. Only 2 irrelevant hits, probably natural compounds, were obtained. Limitations and possible practical use of the approach are discussed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00216-018-1028-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…These additional compounds often include the long-chain PFHxS, and shorter chain PFAAs such as perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), and pefluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS). In some countries in Europe (Banzhaf, Filipovic, Lewis, Sparrenbom, & Barthel, 2017), 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonate is now regulated, and in Australia the use of the TOP assay (Houtz, Higgins, Field, & Sedlak, 2013;Houtz & Sedlak, 2012) is now commonplace to measure treatment of total PFASs.…”

Section: Overview Of Pfas Properties Fate and Transport And Evolvinmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of emerging technologies for remediation of PFASs

Ross

McDonough

Miles

et al. 2018

Remediation Journal

347

252

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The need for remediation of poly‐ and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) is growing as a result of more regulatory attention to this new class of contaminants with diminishing water quality standards being promulgated, commonly in the parts per trillion range. PFASs comprise >3,000 individual compounds, but the focus of analyses and regulations has generally been PFASs termed perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), which are all extremely persistent, can be highly mobile, and are increasingly being reported to bioaccumulate, with understanding of their toxicology evolving. However, there are thousands of polyfluorinated “PFAA precursors”, which can transform in the environment and in higher organisms to create PFAAs as persistent daughter products. Some PFASs can travel miles from their point of release, as they are mobile and persistent, potentially creating large plumes. The use of a conceptual site model (CSM) to define risks posed by specific PFASs to potential receptors is considered essential. Granular activated carbon (GAC) is commonly used as part of interim remedial measures to treat PFASs present in water. Many alternative treatment technologies are being adapted for PFASs or ingenious solutions developed. The diversity of PFASs commonly associated with use of multiple PFASs in commercial products is not commonly assessed. Remedial technologies, which are adsorptive or destructive, are considered for both soils and waters with challenges to their commercial application outlined. Biological approaches to treat PFASs report biotransformation which creates persistent PFAAs, no PFASs can biodegrade. Water treatment technologies applied ex situ could be used in a treatment train approach, for example, to concentrate PFASs and then destroy them on‐site. Dynamic groundwater recirculation can greatly enhance contaminant mass removal via groundwater pumping. This review of technologies for remediation of PFASs describes that: GAC may be effective for removal of long‐chain PFAAs, but does not perform well on short‐chain PFAAs and its use for removal of precursors is reported to be less effective; Anion‐exchange resins can remove a wider array of long‐ and short‐chain PFAAs, but struggle to treat the shortest chain PFAAs and removal of most PFAA precursors has not been evaluated; Ozofractionation has been applied for PFASs at full scale and shown to be effective for removal of total PFASs; Chemical oxidation has been demonstrated to be potentially applicable for some PFAAs, but when applied in situ there is concern over the formation of shorter chain PFAAs and ongoing rebound from sorbed precursors; Electrochemical oxidation is evolving as a destructive technology for many PFASs, but can create undesirable by‐products such as perchlorate and bromate; Sonolysis has been demonstrated as a potential destructive technology in the laboratory but there are significant challenges when considering scale up; Soils stabilization approaches are evolving and have been used at full scale but performance need to be assessed usin...

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A review of contamination of surface-, ground-, and drinking water in Sweden by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs)

Cited by 163 publications

References 54 publications

Distribution and Bioaccumulation of Perfluoroalkyl Acids in Xiamen Coastal Waters

Distribution and Bioaccumulation of Perfluoroalkyl Acids in Xiamen Coastal Waters

Non-targeted analysis of unexpected food contaminants using LC-HRMS

A review of emerging technologies for remediation of PFASs

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