Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the environment

Abstract

Over the past several years, the term PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) has grown to be emblematic of environmental contamination, garnering public, scientific, and regulatory concern. PFAS are synthesized by two processes, direct fluorination (e.g., electrochemical fluorination) and oligomerization (e.g., fluorotelomerization). More than a megatonne of PFAS is produced yearly, and thousands of PFAS wind up in end-use products. Atmospheric and aqueous fugitive releases during manufacturing, use, and disposal have resulted in the global distribution of these compounds. Volatile PFAS facilitate long-range transport, commonly followed by complex transformation schemes to recalcitrant terminal PFAS, which do not degrade under environmental conditions and thus migrate through the environment and accumulate in biota through multiple pathways. Efforts to remediate PFAS-contaminated matrices still are in their infancy, with much current research targeting drinking water.

Antibody response to COVID-19 vaccines among workers with a wide range of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances

“…Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a broad class of man-made chemicals that have been used since the 1950’s in a wide variety of polymer and surfactant applications ( Buck et al, 2011 ). Because of their widespread use and the long serum half-life in humans of some types of PFAS, most humans in developed countries have detectable serum levels of certain PFAS, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) ( Evich et al, 2022 ). Human exposure to PFAS occurs primarily through the ingestion of food and water, and inhalation of air and dust particles ( De Silva et al, 2021 , Sunderland et al, 2019 ).…”

Electron in a cube: Synthesis and characterization of perfluorocubane as an electron acceptor

“…Previous polyhedral molecules have found widespread applications in functional materials after their synthesis. Thus, our study, which demonstrates that perfluorinated cage compounds act as electron acceptors, can be expected to pave the way for the molecular design of distinctive functional organic materials [a connection to the environmental accumulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) cannot be discarded at present, and attention should be paid to this issue when devising applications of such fluorinated cubanes] ( 38 ).…”

Microplastics in the Gulf of Mexico: A Bird’s Eye View

“…Although direct uptake of additives from ingested microplastics is clear for some additives of concern (e.g., PBDEs, metals), it has not been evaluated thoroughly for most chemicals associated with plastics (e.g., PAHs, phthalates and bisphenols/nonylphenols, PCBs, OCPs). PFAs are additional emerging contaminants of concern and should also be evaluated in association with microplastics [204,205]. This should be accomplished through controlled studies feeding microplastics with known initial chemical concentrations to birds and measuring uptake in various tissues, and will most likely involve laboratory studies, but field studies will also be beneficial for ecological relevance and for species not amenable to laboratory conditions (e.g., [156]).…”