Perfluorinated Surfactants and the Environmental Implications of Their Use in Fire-Fighting Foams

Abstract

The recent identification of one class of fluorinated surfactants in groundwater impacted by fire-fighting activity has created an awareness of the potential environmental issues resulting from the use of aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) agents. Aqueous film forming foams are used to extinguish hydrocarbon-fuel fires and their repeated usage, particularly at military sites, has led to AFFFcontaminated groundwater. Formulations of AFFF agents include fluorinated surfactants, which are an important class of specialty chemicals that have physio-chemical properties that differentiate them from hydrocarbon surfactants. Little is known about the occurrence, transport, biodegradation, and toxicity of fluorinated surfactants in the environment. The fact that fluorinated surfactants, as well as other AFFF components, co-occur with priority pollutants (e.g., jet fuel components and chlorinated solvents) complicates studies on their fate and effect in the environment. Research is needed to sufficiently identify those fluorinated surfactants present in commercial AFFF products and environmental samples and to characterize their environmental properties. Additionally, the environmental behavior of the AFFF mixtures and complex AFFFwastewaters needs to be investigated.

Concentrations of perfluorinated acids in livers of birds from Japan and Korea

“…PFOA is not only an impurity in PFOS mixtures, but also is used as a plasticizer, corrosion inhibitor and anti-wetting agent. PFOA has been identified in areas where aqueous film fire-fighting foams have been used to control fuel fires (Moody and Field, 2000). FOSA is a metabolite of nethyl FOSA (Sulfluramid), which is used as an insecticide to control roaches, ants and termites (Manning et al, 1991).…”

Bioaccumulation and risk assessment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in wild freshwater fish from rivers in the Pearl River Delta region, South China

“…Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), including perfluorinated carboxylates (PFCAs) and sulfonates (PFSAs), are a class of man-made organic chemicals widely used in industrial applications, such as carpet, metal plating, fire-fighting foams, semiconductor and food packaging, paper and other areas since the mid-20th century (Key et al, 1997;Giesy and Kannan, 2001;Moody and Field, 2000;Lewandowski et al, 2006). After almost a half century use, Giesy and Kannan (2001) first reported the occurrence of PFASs in wildlife, and this raised great concern over scientific community.…”

Spatiotemporal distribution and mass loadings of perfluoroalkyl substances in the Yangtze River of China

“…Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a class of synthetic fluorinated organic compounds with hydrophobic and oleophobic properties, and they are widely used in consumer and industrial applications such as textiles, clothes, carpet, paper coating, cosmetics, waterproof agents, and firefighting foams (Key et al, 1997;Moody and Field, 2000;Giesy and Kannan, 2001;Lewandowski et al, 2006). Perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (PFSAs) are the two most prevalent groups of PFASs in the environment, and among them perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) are the typical PFAS compounds transformed from many other precursors of PFASs such as N-ethyl perfluorooctane sulfonamidoethanol (EtFOSE), and N-ethyl perfluorobutane sulfonamide (EtFBSA) (Martin et al, 2006;Rhoads et al, 2008).…”