Occurrence and Phase Distribution of Neutral and Ionizable Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in the Atmosphere and Plant Leaves around Landfills: A Case Study in Tianjin, China

Abstract

A total of 23 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) were investigated in the air, dry deposition, and plant leaves at two different landfills and one suburban reference site in Tianjin, China. The potential of landfills as sources of PFASs to the atmosphere and the phase distribution therein were evaluated. The maximum concentrations of ∑PFASs in the two landfills were up to 9.5 ng/m in the air, 4.1 μg/g in dry deposition, and 48 μg/g lipid in leaves with trifluoroacetic acid and perfluoropropionic acid being dominant (71%-94%). Spatially, the distribution trend of ionizable and neutral PFASs in all three kinds of media consistently showed the central landfill > the downwind > the upwind > the reference sites, indicating that landfills are important sources to PFASs in the environment. Plant leaves were found effective in uptake of a variety of airborne PFASs including polyfluoroalkyl phosphoric acid diesters, thus capable of acting as a passive air sampling approach for air monitoring.

Occurrence and source apportionment of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in the atmosphere in China

“…This study found generally higher PFAAs abundances compared to measurements in Canada (Gewurtz et al, 2013), which may be attributed to the relative high abundance of industrial and domestic emissions in China. However, the PFAA concentrations in urban/rural areas in this study were far lower than the measurements at point sources, for example, a landfill environment (Tian et al, 2018b; 360-820 pg m −3 ) and fluorochemical manufacturing facility ; 4900 ± 4200 pg m −3 ), suggesting that PFAAs were susceptible to being affected by local source emissions. Although there existed inherent differences of PFAAs levels between regions, the impacts from differences in sampling techniques and sorbents between XAD-PAS and SIP-PAS could not be neglected.…”

“…The long-chain PFCAs concentrations were 17.96 ± 13.71 pg m −3 , which were significantly higher than the short-chain concentrations (13.74 ± 12.19 pg m −3 ; p < 0.05). Similarly, a recent PFAAs measurement conducted in a landfill environment in Tianjin, China (Tian et al, 2018b), found the long-chain PFCAs were much higher than the short species. Specifically, PFOA was the dominant PFAA (accounting 20.6 %), and was detected in all atmospheric samples with an average value of 8.19 ± 8.03 pg m −3 .…”

“…The sample preparation and analysis were according to the method described by previous research (Liu et al, 2015;Tian et al, 2018b). The MPFAC-MXA ISs mixture surrogates (10 ng) were added to each spiked sample prior to extraction.…”

“…With a large quantity of PFAAs and their products manufacturing and consumption, China has become an emerging global contamination hotspot. In spite of several studies on atmospheric PFAAs levels having been conducted in a few cities (Liu et al, 2015) and point sources (Yao et al, 2016a;Tian et al, 2018b) in China, due to the imbalanced urbanization and industrialization levels, there is still a lack of systemic research on atmospheric PFAAs quantification and trends in China.…”

Interactive effects of changing stratospheric ozone and climate on tropospheric composition and air quality, and the consequences for human and ecosystem health

“…Occurrence of TFA in dry-deposition from air near two landfills (Shuangkou and Baodi) in Tianjin, China 200 suggests TFA was produced from sources other than HCFCs, HFCs, and HFOs. However, it is most likely that TFA found in air, cloud-and fog-water, rainfall, and snow is the result of breakdown of precursors regulated under the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols (Fig.…”