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Spatiotemporal Analysis of Perfluoroalkyl Substances in White-Tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) Nestlings from Northern NorwayA Ten-Year Study
journal contribution
posted on 2020-04-01, 18:09 authored by William Jouanneau, Bård-Jørgen Bårdsen, Dorte Herzke, Trond Vidar Johnsen, Igor Eulaers, Jan Ove BustnesThe
white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) in Scandinavia has suffered from impaired reproduction due to high
exposure to industrial pollution between the 1960s and 1980s. While
population numbers are rising again, new contaminants, such as per-
and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are increasingly found in high
trophic avifauna and are of concern to potentially impact once again
on population health. In the present study, we examined PFAS levels
in plasma of white-tailed eagle nestlings from northern Norway over
the last decade (2008–2017). While PFOA and PFNA exposure did
not follow a significant time trend, PFOS and PFHxS concentrations
decreased over time, and ≥C11 perfluorinated carboxylic
acids only seem to level off during the last four years. This may
in fact be the first evidence for a change in the trend for some of
these compounds. Furthermore, since several PFAS are expected to be
highly present in aqueous film-forming foams used at airports, we
also investigate the potential of the two main airports in the region
to act as hotspots for PFAS. Our results indeed show decreasing exposure
to PFOA with distance to the airports. Altogether, our results seem
to show that legislation actions are effective, and continued concern
for PFAS exposure of high trophic wildlife is still warranted, even
in the northern environment.