Comprehensive Exposure Studies of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in the General Population: Target, Nontarget Screening, and Toxicity Prediction

Abstract

Novel per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the environment and populations have received extensive attention; however, their distribution and potential toxic effects in the general population remain unclear. Here, a comprehensive study on PFAS screening was carried out in serum samples of 202 individuals from the general population in four cities in China. A total of 165 suspected PFASs were identified using target and nontarget analysis, including seven identified PFAS homolog series, of which 16 PFASs were validated against standards, and seven PFASs [4:2 chlorinated polyfluorinated ether sulfonate (4:2 Cl-PFESA), 7:2 chlorinated polyfluorinated ether sulfonate (7:2 Cl-PFESA), hydrosubstituted perfluoroheptanoate (H-PFHpA), chlorine-substituted perfluorooctanoate (Cl-PFOA), chlorine-substituted perfluorononanate (Cl-PFNA), chlorine-substituted perfluorodecanoate (Cl-PFDA), and perfluorodecanedioic acid (PFLDCA n = 8)] were reported for the first time in human serum. The Tox21-GCN model (a graph convolutional neural network model based on the Tox21 database) was established to predict the toxicity of the discovered PFASs, revealing that PFASs containing sulfonic acid groups exhibited multiple potential toxic effects, such as estrogenic effects and stress responses. Our study indicated that the general population was exposed to various PFASs, and the toxicity prediction results of individual PFASs suggested potential health risks that could not be ignored.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in white-tailed sea eagle eggs from Sweden: temporal trends (1969–2021), spatial variations, fluorine mass balance, and suspect screening

“…Nevertheless, this class of PFAS has been previously reported in industrial wastewater, 78,83 fish, 76 and human serum in China. 84…”

“…Nevertheless, this class of PFAS has been previously reported in industrial wastewater, 78,83 sh, 76 and human serum in China. 84 Cyclic/unsaturated ether PFSAs. For the cyclic/unsaturated ether PFSAs (C n F 2n−1 SO 4 ] − , n = 8), there was insufficient data available to determine a nal structure of this suspect.…”

Further Insight into Extractable (Organo)fluorine Mass Balance Analysis of Tap Water from Shanghai, China

“…Total semiquantification concentrations of the eight novel PFAS (0.34–1.01 ng/L) only contributed to an addition of less than 0.10%. Although concentrations of these novel PFAS (identified through suspect screening) are low and did not explain much of the EF, further attention still needs to be paid to these PFAS, as most of the compounds have already been identified in the general population, indicating that humans are exposed to various novel PFAS and potential toxic effects may arise …”

SWATH-F: A Novel Nontarget Strategy Based on the SWATH-MS Deconvolution Method Assisting in Annotating PFAS Homologues in Multisample Studies

“…PFCAs series, PFSAs series, and Cl-PFESAs series are generally detected in the environment 12 and human blood. 17,20 These three series could be detected in the population serum cohort of this study by using the SWATH-F method as well as the nontarget PFAS homologue screening script based on the IDA collection mode (hereinafter referred to as the IDA method). The coverage of PFASs detected by the SWATH-F method was higher than that obtained by the IDA method (SI Text S2), especially the detection of PFASs with shorter carbon chains, longer carbon chains, and odd carbon chains.…”

“…We collected serum samples from 11 adult residents who live within a 5.5 km radius of a fluorine chemical park in Jiangsu Province. The storage and preparation process for the samples was based on our previously published method, 17 which was a modified QuEChERS technique suitable for blood sample preparation. Five concentrations (1,5,10,20, and 50 ppb) of 38 PFAS standards were added to fetal bovine serum (FBS) with the same preparation method as serum samples, along with nine PFAS internal standards (20 ppb).…”