Perfluorinated compounds in snow from downtown of Beijing, China

Abstract

Snow samples were collected in the snow event on November 10, 2009 from 43 sites in the downtown of Beijing to explore the occurrence of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in atmosphere. PFCs were concentrated from snowmelt samples using solid-phase extraction, and then were analyzed by LC-MS/MS. The mean concentrations of total PFCs were in the range of 0.47-7.94 ng/L. PFOA, PFNA, PFOS, and PFHpA were the frequently detected compounds, found in nearly 100% of samples. The most predominant PFC detected were PFOA, with a mean concentration of 0.85 ng/L. The PFC levels in snow samples of southern part are apparently higher than those in northern.