Exposure patterns of perfluorooctane sulfonate in aquatic invertebrates from the Western Scheldt estuary and the southern North Sea

Abstract

Over the past decades little research has been conducted on the environmental behavior and effects of fluorinated organochemicals (FOCs). Recently it has been reported that perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) is occurring worldwide. Little is known about the PFOS levels in organisms originating from the southern North Sea and the Western Scheldt estuary. In this study, we determined, for the first time, the PFOS-exposure levels in Crangon crangon, Carcinus maenas, and Asterias rubens from these ecosystems. Concentrations on a wet-weight basis in soft tissues of shrimp, crab, and starfish ranged from 19 to 520 ng/g, from 24 to 877 ng/g, and from 9 to 176 ng/g, respectively. These results show the existence of a PFOS pollution gradient in organisms along the Western Scheldt estuary, with the highest concentrations near Antwerp. The range of PFOS levels in shrimp and crab are slightly higher in coastal regions compared with sampling sites in open water. This study shows widespread distribution of PFOS in the Belgian and Dutch marine and estuarine environment at rather high concentrations.

Baseline study of perfluorochemicals in harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) from Northern Europe

“…Combining this information with the data of the stable carbon isotopes, our results suggest that porpoises of North Norway/Barents Sea feed more offshore, and porpoises of the Southwest Coast feed more in coastal waters. Previous studies have reported that coastal regions seem to be more polluted than oceanic waters (Kannan et al, 2001a;Van de Vijver et al, 2003a). The new data presented on perfluorinated chemicals around the coasts of Norway seem to confirm such a pollution gradient.…”

Perfluoroalkyl Compounds

“…PFSAs and PFCAs have been measured globally in invertebrates [87,88,109,188,189], fish [85,87,88,106,109,124,187,[190][191][192], reptiles [106,193], birds [87,106,190,192,[194][195][196][197], and terrestrial [187,198] and marine [87,106,107,119,190,192,[199][200][201][202][203][204][205][206][207][208] mammals. The pattern of contamination in biota is complex and varies among species and locations.…”

Perfluorooctanesulfonate and Related Fluorochemicals in Human Blood Samples from China

“…PFOS and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) have been found to be the dominant PFCs in the environment and in biota (5)(6)(7)(8)(9). The first report of organic fluorinated compounds in human blood was as early as 1960s (10).…”