Updated national emission of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) from wastewater treatment plants in South Korea

Use and release of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in consumer food packaging in U.S. and Canada

“…Leachate is oen directed to WWTPs that are not designed to efficiently treat PFASs. 83 WWTPs also receive PFASs from food packaging via human waste, unquantied due to a lack of data. However, several studies have highlighted the tendency of PFASs to transfer from food packaging to food, 2,23 which leads to ingestion through food consumption.…”

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Presence, Pathways, and Cycling through Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment

“…WRRFs are both sinks and sources of PFAS contamination (Chen et al 2018) and may release PFAS into the environment (Wang et al 2018). Relatively large flows of wastewater (Kwon et al 2017;Arvaniti and Stasinakis 2015) and urban stormwater (Page et al 2019) are important in environmental PFAS cycling because conventional treatment processes at WRRFs remove very little PFAS and stormwater often receives no treatment. Hamid et al (2018) previously published a review of the role of WRRFs in the environmental cycling of PFAS through aqueous effluent, sludge, and air emissions.…”

“…Conventional WRRFs have demonstrated limited effectiveness in removing PFAS from the aqueous phase (Arvaniti and Stasinakis 2015;Chen et al 2018;Szabo et al 2018). Observations that selected PFAS concentrations increase across WRRFs has been reported, albeit it with variable results (Lenka et al 2021;Choi et al 2019;Coggan et al 2019;Seo et al 2019;Gallen et al 2018;Wang et al 2018;Eriksson et al 2017;Kwon et al 2017;Hamid and Li 2016;Houtz et al 2016;Arvaniti and Stasinakis 2015;Loos et al 2013;Venkatesan and Halden 2013;Yu et al 2009;Loganathan et al 2007;Schultz et al 2006). The increases in PFAS concentrations during treatment are attributed to breakdown of unmeasurable precursors such as fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOH), perfluoroalkyl phosphates (PAPS), or fluorotelomer sulfonates (FTS) in the wastewater treatment process and yield measurable PFAS byproducts (Zhang et al 2021;Eriksson et al 2017;Loganathan et al 2007).…”

“…1) generated at WTPs and WRRFs, respectively, can be land applied for beneficial reuse, sent to a landfill, or subjected to thermal treatment or incineration. Residuals from water treatment have been shown to contain PFAS (Coggan et al 2019;Lazcano et al 2019;Nakayama et al 2019;Rainey 2019;Seo et al 2019;Eriksson et al 2017;Gallen et al 2017;Kwon et al 2017;Mailler et al 2017;Armstrong et al 2016;Pan et al 2016;Ulrich et al 2016;Alder and van der Voet 2015;Wang et al 2015b;Yan et al 2012;Navarro et al 2011;Sun et al 2011;Guo et al 2010;Loganathan et al 2007). Sediments from surface waters have been shown to contain PFAS that have been linked to WRRF effluent (Mussabek et al 2019;Bach et al 2017;Qi et al 2017).…”

“…PFAS-containing solid and liquid wastes derived from residential, commercial, and industrial sources have been disposed in landfills for decades (Masoner et al 2020;Scher et al 2018;Seo et al 2019). Inputs to landfills are also anticipated from wastes generated in the WTP/WRRF cycle, including disposal of PFAS contaminated GAC, sludges, and residual solids from thermal treatment (Page et al 2019;Kwon et al 2017).…”