Occurrence of perfluorinated substances in an adult German population in southern Bavaria

Abstract

Our data agree well with results of other recent studies in Europe and suggest that the current exposure of the adult German population is lower than the exposure of the US and Canadian population. The sources of human exposure are currently not well understood. Toxicological implications are restricted to animal studies and occupational investigations not adequate for quantitative risk assessment in humans. Overall, more scientific research is necessary to characterize the body burden of PFCs (especially for relevant subsets of the population) and the main sources and routes, which are responsible for human exposure and possible health implications of these compounds.

Consumption of Seafood, Serum Liver Enzymes, and Blood Levels of PFOS and PFOA in the Japanese Population

“…With regard to gender, levels of PFOS but not PFOA in blood were significantly higher in men than in women. This result for PFOS was in line with those of other studies 17,18,20,23,26) . One reason for this sex difference may be the effects of pregnancy.…”

“…Most previous studies used serum or plasma as a biological medium to evaluate the body burden of PFOS and PFOA, and mean ratios of serum to whole blood concentrations were reported to be approximately 2.3 for PFOS and 2.0 for PFOA 16) . The estimated median serum level of PFOS in our study (13.3 ng ml −1 ), using the ratio of 2.3, was similar to those in serum or plasma reported for Germany 17) , Australia and Japan (10.9−18.3 ng ml −1 ) 18,19) , higher than those reported for Italy 20) Korea and Vietnam (5.6−8.4 ng ml −1 ) 21,22) and lower than those in the U.S. 23,24) and Denmark (30.2−35.8 ng ml −1 ) 25) . On the other hand, the estimated median serum level of PFOA (4.2 ng ml ) was similar to those reported for Germany 17) , Denmark 25) , the U.S. 23,24) , Italy 20) , Australia and Japan (3.6−6.8 ng ml −1 ) 18,19) and higher than those in Vietnam and Korea (0.58−1.6 ng ml −1 ) 21,22) .…”

“…Other studies also showed that the milk/serum ratio of PFOS levels was approximately 0.01 22,29) , suggesting the transfer of PFOS from mother's blood to breast milk to be rather small. Most of the earlier studies 17,20,23,26) , but not others 18,24) , showed significantly lower serum levels of PFOA in women than in men. The reason for the lack of sex difference in PFOA levels observed in our study may be in part because lower blood levels at reproductive ages (16−39 years) were canceled out by the higher blood levels at postmenopausal ages (≥60 years) in women; it has been reported that blood levels of PFOA also decrease during pregnancy 27) and increase after menopause 28) .…”

Associations between serum concentrations of perfluoroalkyl acids and serum lipid levels in a Chinese population

“…PFOA, instead of PFOS, was the dominant analyte (Pan et al, 2010;Guo et al, 2011). Consistent with other studies, the univariate analysis showed that concentrations of PFOA, PFNA and PFOS were significantly correlated with age, and concentrations of PFOA, PFNA, PFDA and PFOS appeared to be higher in males than those in females (Calafat et al, 2007;Fromme et al, 2007;Holzer et al, 2008;Haug et al, 2009;Zhang et al, 2010).…”

Trends of polyfluoroalkyl compounds in marine biota and in humans

“…6. PFOS, PFOA and PFHxS concentrations in human blood (*, serum data, or whole blood data converted to serum basis by multiplying by a factor of 2) of the general population (male adults; except for Sweden: female adults) in several cities all over the world (2000-05); data adapted from references that are cited following the data: China [41] ; USA, Poland, South Korea, Belgium, Malaysia, Brazil, Japan (2002), Colombia, Italy, India [26] ; Canada [160] ; Japan (2003) [138] ; Australia [161] ; Norway [39] ; Sweden [51] ; Germany [162] ; Sri Lanka. [163] Chinese cities no age-related differences were observed.…”