Perfluorooctane sulphonate and perfluorooctanoic acid in drinking and environmental waters

Abstract

Perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are chemicals that have been used for many years as surfactants in a variety of industrial and consumer products. Owing to their persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) characteristics, PFOS has been phased out by its principal producer and the use of PFOA has been reduced. This PBT potential and a number of pollution incidents have led in recent years to an increase in studies surveying the concentrations of PFOS and PFOA in environmental waters worldwide. This paper reviews the results of these studies, as well as the monitoring that was conducted after the pollution incidents. The results of surveys suggest that PFOS and PFOA are found in environmental waters worldwide at low levels. In general, these levels are below health-based values set by international authoritative bodies for drinking water. There have been limited measurements of these chemicals in drinking water, but again these are below health-based values, except in some cases following pollution incidents. Monitoring studies suggested that where PFOS and PFOA were detected, they were at similar levels in both source and drinking water, suggesting that drinking water treatment does not remove these chemicals. However, new data show that PFOS and PFOA are effectively removed by granular activated carbon absorbers in practice. Further research is required on the newer perfluorinated chemicals that appear to be safer, but their degradation products have not as yet been fully studied.

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in wastewater treatment plants and drinking water treatment plants: Removal efficiency and exposure risk

“…Higher adsorption ability were found for longer chain PFASs compared to short chain PFASs by GAC in plant E (Table 2 and Table S5), this can be explained by the increased K oc values with increasing carbon chain length . Other processes such as sand filtration had no effect in removing PFASs in the present study, which is in agreement with other studies (Takagi et al, 2008;Rumsby et al, 2009;Eschauzier et al, 2012).…”

Risk assessment and source identification of perfluoroalkyl acids in surface and ground water: Spatial distribution around a mega-fluorochemical industrial park, China

“…For fluoropolymer manufacturers, non-fluorinated alternatives that are neither persistent nor toxic should be developed while PFAA removal facilities, for example granular activated carbon system, could be considered for wastewater treatment system (Rumsby et al, 2009;Blum et al, 2015). Management of staff uniforms and shuttle buses should be strengthened, and staff suits, trucks and shuttle buses should be regularly cleaned to avoid PFAA pollution during transport.…”

Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in riverine and coastal sediments of Laizhou Bay, North China

“…Several factors influence the distribution of PFAAs in the coastal environment, including the partitioning behaviours between sediment and water (Higgins and Luthy, 2006), meteorology controlling the movement of volatile compounds (Dreyer et al, 2009), hydrological conditions affecting the transportation of the compounds in water (Ahrens et al, 2009a), and the dependence of bioaccumulation on the chain lengths of PFAAs (Martin et al, 2003). Industrial parks (Rumsby et al, 2009), waste water treatment plants Xiao et al, 2012) and accidental spills of PFAA-containing products (Awad et al, 2011) are potential point sources for PFAAs.…”