Fluorine Mass Balance and Suspect Screening in Marine Mammals from the Northern Hemisphere.
Environ Sci Technol
; 54(7): 4046-4058, 2020 04 07.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32160740
ABSTRACT
There is increasing evidence that the â¼20 routinely monitored perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) account for only a fraction of extractable organofluorine (EOF) occurring in the environment. To assess whether PFAS exposure is being underestimated in marine mammals from the Northern Hemisphere, we performed a fluorine mass balance on liver tissues from 11 different species using a combination of targeted PFAS analysis, EOF and total fluorine determination, and suspect screening. Samples were obtained from the east coast United States (US), west and east coast of Greenland, Iceland, and Sweden from 2000 to 2017. Of the 36 target PFASs, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) dominated in all but one Icelandic and three US samples, where the 73 fluorotelomer carboxylic acid (73 FTCA) was prevalent. This is the first report of 73 FTCA in polar bears (â¼1000 ng/g, ww) and cetaceans (<6-190 ng/g, ww). In 18 out of 25 samples, EOF was not significantly greater than fluorine concentrations derived from sum target PFASs. For the remaining 7 samples (mostly from the US east coast), 30-75% of the EOF was unidentified. Suspect screening revealed an additional 37 PFASs (not included in the targeted analysis) bringing the total to 63 detected PFASs from 12 different classes. Overall, these results highlight the importance of a multiplatform approach for accurately characterizing PFAS exposure in marine mammals.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Water Pollutants, Chemical
/
Alkanesulfonic Acids
/
Fluorocarbons
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Screening_studies
Limits:
Animals
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
/
Europa
Language:
En
Year:
2020
Type:
Article