es9b06773_si_001.pdf (1.8 MB)
Fluorine Mass Balance and Suspect Screening in Marine Mammals from the Northern Hemisphere
journal contribution
posted on 2020-03-24, 13:33 authored by Kyra M. Spaan, Carmen van Noordenburg, Merle M. Plassmann, Lara Schultes, Susan Shaw, Michelle Berger, Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen, Aqqalu Rosing-Asvid, Sandra M. Granquist, Rune Dietz, Christian Sonne, Frank Rigét, Anna Roos, Jonathan P. BenskinThere is increasing evidence that
the ∼20 routinely monitored perfluoroalkyl 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 to 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 concentrations
derived from sum target PFASs. For the remaining 7 samples (mostly
from the US east coast), 30–75% of the EOF was unidentified.
Suspect screening revealed an additional 37 PFASs (not included in
the targeted analysis) bringing the total to 63 detected PFASs from
12 different classes. Overall, these results highlight the importance
of a multiplatform approach for accurately characterizing PFAS exposure
in marine mammals.