Environmental Risk Assessment of Trifluoroacetic Acid

Rainwater trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in Guangzhou, South China: Levels, wet deposition fluxes and source implication

“…The persistence and water solubility of TFA make it potentially accumulate in some aquatic ecosystems where TFA may concentrate through water evaporation, especially in landlocked lakes (Tromp et al, 1995;Cahill et al, 2001;Wu and Chau, 2006), or in some hydrometeors, particularly in fog (Römpp et al, 2001). Previous results displayed that TFA was of mildly phytotoxic (Berends et al, 1999;Boutonnet et al, 1999). Although the observed TFA levels in aqueous environment were all below the safety level of 0.10 mg L −1 (Berends et al, 1999), high levels have been reported as early as in 1990s.…”

“…Some HCFCs/HFCs, such as HCFC-123 (CF 3 CHCl 2 ), HCFC-124 (CF 3 CHClF) and HFC-134a (CF 3 CH 2 F), can react with hydroxyl (OH) radical to yield CF 3 COX (X = F or Cl), which will result in the formation of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) through in-cloud hydrolysis (Wallington et al, 1992(Wallington et al, , 1994Franklin, 1993;Tuazon and Atkinson, 1993;Kanakidou et al, 1995;Boutonnet et al, 1999). Due to its low Henry's Law constant (Bowden et al, 1996) and high solubility , TFA is expected to be removed from the atmosphere primarily by washout.…”

“…TFA is extremely stable in the ambient and highly resistant to chemical and biological degradation under normal environmental condition (Emptage et al, 1997;Boutonnet et al, 1999). The persistence and water solubility of TFA make it potentially accumulate in some aquatic ecosystems where TFA may concentrate through water evaporation, especially in landlocked lakes (Tromp et al, 1995;Cahill et al, 2001;Wu and Chau, 2006), or in some hydrometeors, particularly in fog (Römpp et al, 2001).…”

“…For instance, TFA concentrations were reported as high as 40,900 ng L −1 in Pyramid Lake of the United States (Zehavi and Seiber, 1996); and the levels beyond 1000 ng L −1 were also recorded in rainwater around the world (Frank et al, 1995;Wujcik et al, 1998;Von Sydow et al, 2000;Berg et al, 2000;Scott et al, 2006). Due to the continual input to the environment and the accumulation in terminal water bodies, TFA levels in aqueous environment would keep increasing in the coming decades and more attention should be paid on its potential adverse effects (Berends et al, 1999;Boutonnet et al, 1999;Wiegand et al, 2000). Thus, it is important to acquire information about the fate and sources of TFA in the environment.…”

“…Other fluorochemicals, such as fluorinated inhalation anesthetics (halothane, desflurane, and isoflurane) and pesticides with trifluoromethyl-substituted aromatic ring, were also considered as the potential precursors of TFA (Jordan and Frank, 1999). Moreover, some chemical industries using TFA as a reagent could also directly or indirectly give off TFA to the ambient (Jordan and Frank, 1999;Boutonnet et al, 1999). Even so, all these sources mentioned above still could not explain huge reserve of TFA in oceans.…”