Profiling research on PFAS in wildlife: Protocol of a systematic evidence map and bibliometric analysis

Abstract

1. Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large group of manufactured chemicals. Since the beginning of their commercial production in the 1950s, PFAS have not only found their way into numerous industrial and commercial applications, but also into the bloodstream of much of the human population, the natural environment and wildlife. Exposure to high levels of PFAS poses a health risk for humans and animals, and may exacerbate the effects of other anthropogenic impacts faced by wildlife species. To gain a comprehensive overview of the abundance and distribution of PFAS research on wildlife species, and to better understand the drivers of this research, we will collate the available literature into a systematic evidence map and perform bibliometric analyses. The systematic mapping will present the distribution of research evidence that exists on PFAS in wildlife.The bibliometric analysis will provide an insight into the historical trends, interdisciplinarity, connectedness and the impact of the individual papers.2. We will conduct a systematic literature search on Scopus, Web of Science and 10 other databases using predefined search strings. We will screen title, abstract and keywords first. We will then screen full-text papers. Two reviewers will be involved in the screening process. We will only consider publications in English, peer-reviewed articles, preprints and theses. We will include papers reportingThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Toilet Paper and the Impact on Wastewater Systems

“…With increasing frequency, scientists and policy makers rely on measurements from society's wastewater as sentinels of disease transmission, 1 drug use, 2 and chemical exposure and environmental release. 3 Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), ubiquitous chemicals now documented throughout the natural environment, 4 wildlife, 5 human blood, 6 and breastmilk, 7 have been similarly documented in wastewater, 8 particularly the residual sewage sludge from biological wastewater treatment. 9,10 As PFAS occur in numerous household and personal care products, 11,12 the measurement of PFAS in wastewater residuals comes as no surprise, but as much of the world's sewage sludge is land applied, 13,14 the regulatory community now wrestles with how best to address the human health and environmental ramifications of PFAS discharges.…”

“…With increasing frequency, scientists and policy makers rely on measurements from society’s wastewater as sentinels of disease transmission, drug use, and chemical exposure and environmental release . Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), ubiquitous chemicals now documented throughout the natural environment, wildlife, human blood, and breastmilk, have been similarly documented in wastewater, particularly the residual sewage sludge from biological wastewater treatment. , …”

Profiling research on PFAS in wildlife: Systematic evidence map and bibliometric analysis

“…From all included papers, we recorded the information related to study quality and study‐level bias for inclusion in the systematic map: conflict of interest, funding sources and availability of raw data and analysis code (as specified in tab. 4 in Vendl et al., 2021).…”

“…Following the screening, CV extracted the data from eligible papers using Google Forms according to the preregistered procedure, summarized in fig. 3 in Vendl et al (2021). ML cross-checked all manually extracted data, resulting in around 95% agreement in the extracted data.…”

“…We collected systematic mapping and bibliometric information as outlined in tab. 2 and 3, and SI, of Vendl et al (2021). Bibliographic data included document title, year of publication and country of research institution of the first author.…”