Determination of trace levels of total fluorine in water using combustion ion chromatography for fluorine: a mass balance approach to determine individual perfluorinated chemicals in water (original) (raw)

Fluorine Mass Balance and Suspect Screening in Marine Mammals from the Northern Hemisphere

There is increasing evidence that the ~20 routinely monitored per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) account for only a fraction of extractable organofluorine (EOF) occurring in the environment. To assess whether PFAS exposure is being underestimated in marine mammals from the Northern Hemisphere, we performed a fluorine mass balance on liver tissues from 11 different species using a combination of targeted PFAS analysis, EOF and total fluorine determination, and suspect screening. Samples were obtained from the east coast United States (US), west and east coast of Greenland, Iceland, and Sweden from 2000-2017. Of the 36 target PFASs, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) dominated in all but one Icelandic and three US samples, where the 7:3 fluorotelomer carboxylic acid (7:3 FTCA) was prevalent. This is the first report of 7:3 FTCA in polar bears (~1000 ng/g, ww) and cetaceans (<6-190 ng/g, ww). In 18 out of 25 samples, EOF was not significantly greater than fluorine concentrati...