Per and polyfluorinated substances in the Nordic Countries:Use, occurence and toxicology

This Tema Nord report presents a study based on open information and custom market research to review the most common perfluorinated substances (PFC) with less focus on PFOS and PFOA.The study includes three major parts: 1) Identification of relevant per-and polyfluorinated substances and their use in various industrial sectors in the Nordic market by interviews with major players and database information. 2) Emissions to and occurence in the Nordic environment of the substances described in 1). 3) A summary of knowledge of the toxic effects on humans and the environment of substances prioritized in 2). There is a lack of physical chemical data, analystical reference substances, human and environmental occurrence and toxicology data, as well as market information regarding PFCs other than PFOA and PFOS and the current legislation cannot enforce disclosure of specific PFC substance information

Per-and Polyfluorinated Substances Legal and Regulatory Update

Per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) are an emerging contaminant with known human health effects and have been found to accumulate in soil and water throughout the country. Understanding the PFAS regulatory framework is important for scientists, industry, and decision-makers, and it helps to identify where more information is needed and how scientific studies can better inform the regulatory process. The past year saw many updates to the legal framework for PFAS. With the passage of the Federal Infrastructure Package, Congress provided $10 billion for projects aimed at reducing the risk of PFAS exposure. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also finalized the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule. On January 24, 2022, the EPA added 4 PFAS to the agency’s Toxic Release Inventory List. Some states continue to regulate PFAS more robustly than the federal government, and the regulatory impacts contain important lessons Along with regulatory changes, lawsuits concerning PFAS continue to be filed and make their way through the court system. Several groups recently sued the EPA for exceptions to its PFAS reporting requirements. This presentation will explain the PFAS regulatory approaches of the federal and state governments, as well as highlight some of the current PFAS-related lawsuits.Ope

PFAS in paper and board for food contact - options for risk management of poly- and perfluorinated substances

Poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are used in paper and board food contact materials (FCMs) and they have been found to be highly persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic. The purpose of the Nordic workshop and of this report is to:* create an overview of the use of PFAS in FCMs of paper and board and of the toxicity and migration into food of the various substances* provide an overview of whether appropriate risk assessments for fluorinated substances exist as a basis for specific regulations or recommendations* provide an overview of whether analytical methods suitable for analysing and regulating the substances are available* discuss the possibility and structure of national regulations or Nordic recommendations for PFAS in FCMs of paper and board. Risk management to reduce the total content of organically bound fluorine in paper and board FCMs is supported.The given report is published in continuation of a Nordic workshop on January 28th -29th 2015 on poly- and perfluorinated substances (PFAS) in food contact materials. Representatives from EU MS countries, US FDA, Canada and China, as well as manufacturers, retailers, compliance testing laboratories and academia were present in the workshop and contributed to the report

The Air that we Breathe: Neutral and volatile PFAS in Indoor Air

Sources of exposure to per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) include food, water, and, given that humans spend typically 90% of their time indoors, air and dust. Quantifying PFAS that are prevalent indoors, such as neutral, volatile PFAS, and estimating their exposure risk to humans are thus important. To accurately measure these compounds indoors, polyethylene (PE) sheets were employed and validated as passive detection tools and analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Air concentrations were compared to dust and carpet concentrations reported elsewhere. Partitioning between PE sheets of different thicknesses suggested that interactions of the PEs with the compounds are occurring by absorption. Volatile PFAS, specifically fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs), were ubiquitous in indoor environments. For example, in carpeted Californian kindergarten classrooms, 6:2 FTOH dominated with concentrations ranging from 9 to 600 ng m–3, followed by 8:2 FTOH. Concentrations of volatile PFAS from air, carpet, and dust were closely related to each other, indicating that carpets and dust are major sources of FTOHs in air. Nonetheless, air posed the largest exposure risk of FTOHs and biotransformed perfluorinated alkyl acids (PFAA) in young children. This research highlights inhalation of indoor air as an important exposure pathway and the need for further reduction of precursors to PFAA

Field‐testing polyethylene passive samplers for the detection of neutral polyfluorinated alkyl substances in air and water

Fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs), perfluorooctane‐sulfonamidoethanols (FOSEs), perfluorooctane‐sulfonamides (FOSAs), and other poly‐ and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs) are common and ubiquitous byproducts of industrial telomerization processes. They can degrade into various perfluorinated carboxylic acids, which are persistent organic contaminants of concern. We assessed the use of polyethylene (PE) passive samplers as a sampling tool for neutral PFAS precursors during field‐deployments in air and water. A wide range of neutral PFASs was detected in polyethylene sheets exposed in wastewater treatment effluents in August 2017. Equilibration times for most neutral PFASs were on the order of 1 to 2 wk. Based on known sampling rates, the partitioning constants between polyethylene and water, KPEw, were derived. Log KPEw values were mostly in the range of 3 to 4.5, with the greatest values for 8:2 FTOH, 10:2 FTOH, and n‐ethyl‐FOSE. To test the utility of polyethylene for gas‐phase compounds, parallel active and passive sampling was performed in ambient air in Providence (RI, USA) in April 2016. Most PFASs equilibrated within 2 to 7 d. The greatest concentrations in polyethylene samplers were detected for MeFOSE and EtFOSE. Polyethylene/air partitioning constants, log KPEa, were approximately 7 to 8 for the FTOHs, and approached 9 for n‐methyl‐FOSA and n‐methyl‐FOSE. Polyethylene sheets showed promise as a passive sampling approach for neutral PFASs in air and water. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;9999:1–9. © 2018 SETA

The Fate and Transport of Chlorinated Polyfluorinated Ether Sulfonates and Other PFAS through Industrial Wastewater Treatment Facilities in China

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Raising awareness, challenges, legislation, and mitigation approaches under the One Health concept

Funding also from project DigiAqua , grant ref. PTDCEEI-EEE/0415/2021 . M.F.C. and D.A.M.A. wish to acknowledge the funding from the project Ocean3R (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000064) , supported by the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE2020), under the PORTUGAL2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). L.L.B: the publication is part of a project that has received funding from the Erasmus + Project No. ECOBIAS_609967-EPP-1-2019-1-RS-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP ; GA.2019-1991/001-001 . Development of master curricula in ecological monitoring and aquatic bioassessment for Western Balkans HEIs/ECOBIAS. This work was also supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of Sarajevo Canton , grant ref. 27-02-11-4375-2/21 . This publication is based upon work from COST Action CA18238 (Ocean4Biotech, https://www.ocean4biotech.eu/ ), funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Program , which provided open access support. Lada Lukić Bilela: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Inga Matijošytė: Writing – original draft, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Jokūbas Krutkevičius: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Diogo A. M. Alexandrino: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Ivo Safarik: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Juris Burlakovs: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Susana P. Gaudêncio: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Maria F. Carvalho: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsPer- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) have long been known for their detrimental effects on the ecosystems and living organisms; however the long-term impact on the marine environment is still insufficiently recognized. Based on PFAS persistence and bioaccumulation in the complex marine food network, adverse effects will be exacerbated by global processes such as climate change and synergies with other pollutants, like microplastics. The range of fluorochemicals currently included in the PFAS umbrella has significantly expanded due to the updated OECD definition, raising new concerns about their poorly understood dynamics and negative effects on the ocean wildlife and human health. Mitigation challenges and approaches, including biodegradation and currently studied materials for PFAS environmental removal are proposed here, highlighting the importance of ongoing monitoring and bridging research gaps. The PFAS EU regulations, good practices and legal frameworks are discussed, with emphasis on recommendations for improving marine ecosystem management.publishersversionpublishe

PFAS: forever chemicals — persistent, bioaccumulative and mobile: reviewing the status and the need for their phase out and remediation of contaminated sites

Background Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) have received increasing scientific and political attention in recent years. Several thousand commercially produced compounds are used in numerous products and technical processes. Due to their extreme persistence in the environment, humans and all other life forms are, therefore, increasingly exposed to these substances. In the following review, PFAS will be examined comprehensively. Results The best studied PFAS are carboxylic and sulfonic acids with chain lengths of C4 to C14, particularly perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS). These substances are harmful to aquatic fauna, insects, and amphibians at concentrations of a few µg/L or less, accumulate in organisms, and biomagnify in food webs. Humans, as the final link in numerous food chains, are subjected to PFAS uptake primarily through food and drinking water. Several PFAS have multiple toxic effects, particularly affecting liver, kidney, thyroid, and the immune system. The latter effect is the basis for the establishment of a tolerable weekly dose of only 4.4 ng/kg body weight for the sum of the four representatives PFOA, PFOS, perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2020. Exposure estimates and human biomonitoring show that this value is frequently reached, and in many cases exceeded. PFAS are a major challenge for analysis, especially of products and waste: single-substance analyses capture only a fragment of the large, diverse family of PFAS. As a consequence, sum parameters have gained increasing importance. The high mobility of per and polyfluorinated carboxylic and sulfonic acids makes soil and groundwater pollution at contaminated sites a problem. In general, short-chain PFAS are more mobile than long-chain ones. Processes for soil and groundwater purification and drinking water treatment are often ineffective and expensive. Recycling of PFAS-containing products such as paper and food packaging leads to carryover of the contaminants. Incineration requires high temperatures to completely destroy PFAS. After PFOA, PFOS and a few other perfluorinated carboxylic and sulfonic acids were regulated internationally, many manufacturers and users switched to other PFAS: short-chain representatives, per- and polyfluorinated oxo carboxylic acids, telomeric alcohols and acids. Analytical studies show an increase in environmental concentrations of these chemicals. Ultra-short PFAS (chain length C1–C3) have not been well studied. Among others, trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is present globally in rapidly increasing concentrations. Conclusions The substitution of individual PFAS recognized as hazardous by other possibly equally hazardous PFAS with virtually unknown chronic toxicity can, therefore, not be a solution. The only answer is a switch to fluorine-free alternatives for all applications in which PFAS are not essential