Distribution, source identification and health risk assessment of PFASs in groundwater from Jiangxi Province, China

Abstract

There is an urgent need to investigate on the distribution and fate of short-chain analogues and emerging per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in groundwater, and little research on their source apportionment and health risks through the drinking water exposure pathway has been carried out. In present study, the concentration and source of 22 PFASs, including five alternatives: 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonate (6:2 FTS), potassium 9-chlorohexadecafluoro-3-oxanonane-1-sulfonate (F–53B), hexafluoropropylene oxide trimer acid (HFPO-TA), hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) and ammonium 4, 8-dioxa-3H-perfluorononanoate (ADONA), were analyzed in 88 groundwater samples from wells in Jiangxi Province, southeastern China. The total PFASs concentration (Σ18PFASs) in groundwater varied from 1.27 to 381.00 ng/L (mean 47.60 ng/L). Short-chain perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) and perfluoropentanoic acid (PFPeA) were the most abundant perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs), and short-chain perfluorobutanesulfonate (PFBS) was the most abundant perfluorinated sulfonic acids (PFSAs) in groundwater samples. The quantitative source apportionment by nonnegative matrix/tensor factorization coupled with k-means clustering (NMFk) model suggested that short-chain homologues and emerging alternatives have been used as substitutes for legacy PFOS and PFOA. Furthermore, the human risk assessment results showed that the estimated daily intakes (EDIs) for short-chain PFCAs were higher than that of PFOA, whereas the EDIs of PFBS, 6:2 FTS and F–53B were comparable to that of PFOS.