A global survey of perfluorinated acids in oceans

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the lower atmosphere and surface waters of the Chinese Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and Yangtze River estuary

“…The PFOA concentrations in the waters of the Yellow Sea and Yangtze River estuary were similar to those in the Baltic Sea (0.25 to 4.45 ng/L) , but higher than those in the waters of the North Sea (b 0.2 to 2.43 ng/L) and coastal Norway (0.07 to 0.35 ng/L) . The PFOS concentrations in the waters of the Bohai Sea (b 0.03to 0.12 ng/L), Yellow Sea (b0.03 to 0.11 ng/L), and Yangtze River estuary (b 0.03 to 0.20 ng/L) were comparable to those of the Dalian coast, China (0.1 to 0.2 ng/L) , eastern to southern Chinese coasts (0.02 to 0.07 ng/L) (Cai et al, 2012b), and the South China Sea (0.008 to 0.11 ng/L) (Yamashita et al, 2005). Kwok et al (2015) investigated the PFOA and PFOS levels in the South China Sea for the same year (2012) as the current study.…”

“…The concentrations of PFOA (2.3 to 106 ng/L) in the Bohai Sea water in the current study were comparable to those for the Dalian Coast (1.5 to 95.7 ng/L) . For the Yellow Sea (0.89 to 14 ng/L) and Yangtze River estuary, the PFOA concentrations (0.98 to 6.9 ng/L) were comparable to those for the coastal areas of Hong Kong (0.67 to 5.5 ng/L), though these were higher than those for the eastern and southern Chinese coasts (0.04 to 1.5 ng/L) (Cai et al, 2012b) and the South China Sea (0.16 to 0.42 ng/L) (Yamashita et al, 2005). As compared to other coastal areas globally, the PFOA concentrations in the Bohai Sea water were similar to those of the Tokyo Bay water (2.7 to 63 ng/L), which is a semiclosed bay in Japan (Sakurai et al, 2010).…”

“…PFASs have been found in various environmental compartments worldwide (Houde et al, 2011;Z. Wang et al, 2015;Yamashita et al, 2005). Some longchained PFASs (C ≥ 8) are bioaccumulative and toxic, and are thus listed in the national and international regulations (OECD, 2002).…”

“…They have high water solubility because of their carboxylic or sulfonic acid groups, and can be transported across long distances via water (Ahrens, 2011;Yamashita et al, 2005). Open sea water is presumed an important sink of ionic PFAS homologues (Armitage et al, 2009;Yamashita et al, 2005).…”

Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in riverine and coastal sediments of Laizhou Bay, North China

“…The perfluoroalkyl chains and polar head groups of PFAAs imbue the chemicals with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties (Kissa, 2001). PFAAs were detected in various environmental matrices, including air (Dreyer et al, 2009;Li et al, 2011b), environmental and tap water (Ahrens, 2011;Bao et al, 2012;Yamashita et al, 2005), sediment (Higgins et al, 2005) and human blood (Kannan et al, 2004). Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) were frequently detected in water and sediments due to their various direct and indirect sources (Paul et al, 2008;Prevedouros et al, 2005) and potential for long-range transport (LRT) via marine currents (Ahrens et al, 2009a;Nash et al, 2010).…”