Abstract
Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have been found in environment globally. However, studies on PFAS occurrence in sediments of lakes or reservoirs remain relatively scarce. In this study, two hundred and sixty-two surface sediment samples were collected from forty-eight lakes and two reservoirs all over China. Average PFAS concentrations in surface sediments from each lake or reservoir varied from 0.086 ng/g dw to 5.79 ng/g dw with an average of 1.15 ng/g dw. Among five lake regions, average PFAS concentrations for the lakes from Eastern Plain Region were the highest. Perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluoroundecanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) were the predominant PFASs in surface sediments. The significant positive correlations between PFAS concentrations and total organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus contents in sediments revealed the influences of sedimentary characteristics on PFAS occurrence. A two-dimensional hierarchical cluster analysis heat map was depicted to analyze the possible origins of sediments and individual PFAS. The food-packaging, textile, electroplating, firefighting and semiconductor industry emission sources and the precious metals and coating industry emission sources were identified as the main sources by two receptor models, with contributions of 77.7 and 22.3% to the total concentrations of C4-C14- perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids and PFOS, respectively.
Highlights
Increased from western to eastern China[3]
Quantifiable concentrations of Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in surface sediments were all found in forty-eight lakes and two reservoirs, ranging from 0.086 ng/g dw to 5.79 ng/g dw with an average of 1.15 ng/g dw
The average PFAS concentrations in surface sediments from Eastern Plain Region had an extreme value of 1.72 ng/g dw and was at least 3.0 times higher than any of the other four lake regions
Summary
Increased from western to eastern China[3]. PFOS concentrations in Lake Taihu of Jiangsu Province in Eastern Plain Region, one of the most intensively industrialized provinces in China, even exceeded US EPA standards of 0.2 μg/L for PFOS in drinking water[14,15]. Direct discharge of untreated industiral wastewater seemed to be mainly responsible for the very high concentrations (up to 800 ng/g dw) measured in surface sediments downstream from a production base of the fluorochemical industry, and both untreated wasterwater and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) effluents might be the pollution sources[11]. Studies on PFASs in aquatic environment of China have been mainly focused on the surface water, and data on PFAS concentrations in sediments are available mostly for rivers that have high concentrations in surface water. The specific objectives of this study were to: (1) investigate the occurrence and spatial distribution of PFASs in surface sediments from forty-eight lakes and two reservoirs in China; (2) identify the potential sources of PFASs in sediments using multivariate statistical analysis and two multivariate factor analysis receptor models; and (3) quantitatively calculate the contributions of extracted sources from the two receptor models
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