Abstract
Since perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAs) are widely used and harmless to organisms, they have attracted great attention in recent years. The distribution of PFAs in the oceans all around the world is well documented. However, the study of PFAs in Xiamen could be a beneficial complement, for its unique geologies of no rivers that originate from other cities to influence the concentration of PFAs in this area. In this paper, six PFAs were analyzed in water, sediments, and organisms from both freshwater and seawater and the bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were calculated with the quantity of PFAs in different trophic levels of aquatic organisms. The results showed that the ΣPFA concentrations ranged from 7.66 to 11.98 ng·L−1 for seawater samples and from 2.12 to 8.61 ng·L−1 for freshwater. The concentration of ΣPFAs in sediments was 7.43–12.89 ng·g−1 and 4.53–5.80 ng·g−1 in seawater and freshwater, respectively. The PFA concentration in water is highly positive correlated with the PFA concentration in sediments (R2 = 0.85). The calculated bioaccumulation factors (BCFs) were 6412–14254 L·kg−1 and 2927–7959 L·kg−1 for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonates (PFOS), respectively. PFOA seems more bioaccumulative than PFOS in seawater. The results illustrated the PFA pollution in the Xiamen sea area, and it is useful for the protection and control of the organic pollutants in this area.
Highlights
Perfluorinated acids (PFAs) have emerged as a new class of global environmental pollutants and have a wide range of industrial applications, such as fire-fighting foams, pesticides, and consumer applications including surface coatings for carpets, furniture, and paper products [1]. e unique physicochemical properties of perfluorinated compounds, such as high surface activity, thermal stability, and amphipathicity, are responsible for their industrial value, but they contributed to the compounds’ persistence in the environment and accumulation in biota [2, 3]
perfluorooctane sulfonates (PFOS) was the predominated PFAs with its contribution ranging from 15% to 45%, followed by perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), with its contribution ranged from 11% to 18% (Figure 2)
PFAs such as PFOS, PFHS, PFOA, and PFOSA have been found in ocean water collected from a number of locations, including remote marine locations such as the Arctic and the Antarctic Oceans. e concentration of PFAs in Xiamen coastal water is in the middle level when compared to other bays
Summary
Perfluorinated acids (PFAs) have emerged as a new class of global environmental pollutants and have a wide range of industrial applications, such as fire-fighting foams, pesticides, and consumer applications including surface coatings for carpets, furniture, and paper products [1]. e unique physicochemical properties of perfluorinated compounds, such as high surface activity, thermal stability, and amphipathicity, are responsible for their industrial value, but they contributed to the compounds’ persistence in the environment and accumulation in biota [2, 3]. PFAs persist in the environment as persistent organic pollutants, but unlike PCBs, they are not known to degrade by any natural processes due to the strength of the carbon-fluorine bond [4, 5]. Due to their high water solubility, PFAs are ubiquitous in various kinds of waters and the aqueous phase is considered as a major sink for PFAs [4,5,6,7]. E objective of this research is to study the distribution of PFAs in Xiamen coastal waters. The concentrations of PFAs of several organisms were analyzed, and the bioaccumulation factors were calculated. e purpose of this study is to support basic information about the pollution of PFAs in Xiamen coastal water for the risk assessment and control of PFAs
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