Side-chain fluorinated polymer surfactants in aquatic sediment and biosolid-augmented agricultural soil from the Great Lakes basin of North America

Abstract

Side-chain fluorinated polymer surfactants are the main components of fabric protector sprays and used extensively on furniture and textiles. The composition of these commercial protector products has changed, but there is currently a total dearth of information on these novel fluorinated polymers in the environment. Using a developed analytical approach, two complementary studies examined the distribution of Scotchgard™ fabric protector components in aquatic sediment and in agricultural soils where wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) sourced biosolid application occurred, and in samples from sites in the Laurentian Great Lakes basin of North America. The main components in the pre- and post-2002 Scotchgard™ fabric protectors were identified by MS/MS and Q-TOF-MS to contain a perfluorooctane sulfonamide (S1) and perfluorobutane sulfonamide (S2) based side-chain, respectively, and bonded to a polymer backbone. In fifteen sediment samples collected in 2012–2013 from western Lake Erie and Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron), S1 was in all sediment samples (0.18 to 461.59ng/g dry weight (d.w.)); S2 was in 80% of the sediment samples (<0.03 to 24.08ng/g d.w.). Thirteen soil samples were collected (2015) from a biosolid applied and two non-biosolid applied farm field sites in southern Ontario (Canada). S1 was detected in 100% of the soil samples from biosolid-augmented agricultural sites (mean 236.36ng/g d.w.; range 41.87 to 622.46ng/g d.w.), and at concentrations much greater than in the aquatic sediment samples. The concentration of S1 and S2 in soil and sediment samples were also much greater than the total concentration of other per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) that were measured.The ratio of S1 concentration versus ∑22PFAS concentration was up to 1616 in sediment samples from Lake Erie. This results helps to explain why known PFASs account for low percentages of the total extractable organic fluorine (EOF) content in sediment.