Temporal Trends and Geographical Differences of Perfluoroalkyl Acids in Baltic Sea Herring and White-Tailed Sea Eagle Eggs in Sweden

Abstract

Temporal and spatial trends of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) were investigated in Baltic Sea herring liver (Clupea harengus) from three sites, and white-tailed sea eagle (WTSE) eggs (Haliaeetus albicilla) from two freshwater and two marine areas in Sweden. Trends of most quantifiable PFAAs increased over the monitored period (1980-2014 in herring, 1960s/1980s-2010 in WTSE). No significant decreasing trends were observed for the most recent ten years for any substances, except perfluorooctane sulfonamide (FOSA). Concentrations of perfluorooctanesulfonic acids (PFOS) in herring showed a distinct decreasing spatial trend moving from the more southern site toward the more northern site, indicating main input of PFOS into the southern Baltic Sea. For WTSE, PFOS concentration was higher in the marine compared to the freshwater environment, explained by the cumulative historic contamination of the Baltic Sea. Similarly, concentrations in WTSE were lower in the northern part of the Baltic Sea compared to further south. Concentrations of PFUnDA, representing long-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs), showed a more homogeneous spatial distribution compared to PFOS for both herring and WTSE, indicating that atmospheric inputs (via precursors) of the long-chain PFCAs are important contributors in the study areas.

Temporal Trends (1981–2013) of Per‐ and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Total Fluorine in Baltic cod (Gadus morhua)

“…However, some studies report PFTrDA in the highest concentrations for certain fish (Martin et al ; Berger et al ), including a study on Atlantic cod from the Norwegian coast (Valdersnes et al ). Similarly, the dominance of odd‐numbered chain length PFCAs over adjacent even‐numbered homologues has been consistently reported in wildlife (De Silva and Mabury, ; Martin et al ; Houde et al ; Smithwick et al ; Butt et al ; Verreault et al ; Rotander et al ; Mochizuki et al ) including fish from the Baltic (Berger et al ; Faxneld et al ), but also in other matrices such as human milk (Fujii et al ) and dust (Liu et al ). This pattern is hypothesized to originate either directly from production sources (Prevedouros et al ) or indirectly through a combined effect of the degradation of fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs), yielding equal amounts of odd‐ and even‐chain lengths (Ellis et al ), and the increasing bioaccumulation potential of longer‐chain PFCAs (Martin et al , ).…”

“…Among the PFCAs, we observed PFUnDA and PFNA as the major homologues, followed by PFDA. The accumulation of long‐chain PFCAs, in particular C11 and C9 homologues, has been reported frequently for fish (Martin et al , ; Hart et al ; Berger et al ; Faxneld et al ; Gebbink et al ), but also other wildlife (Bossi et al ). However, some studies report PFTrDA in the highest concentrations for certain fish (Martin et al ; Berger et al ), including a study on Atlantic cod from the Norwegian coast (Valdersnes et al ).…”

“…In general, the findings reported here are consistent with PFAS levels found in other species from the Baltic Sea. For instance, PFOS is usually the most abundant PFAS in samples from the Baltic Sea, including edible fish (Berger et al ; Gebbink et al ), guillemot eggs (Mochizuki et al ), otters (Roos et al ), herring and white‐tailed sea eagle (Faxneld et al ), as well as seals and salmon (Kannan et al ). This trend has also been described in wildlife outside of the Baltic Sea (Martin et al ; Bossi et al ; Hart et al ; Houde et al ; Valdersnes et al ).…”

“…As a result of the phase‐out of PFOS by the 3M Company during 2000 and 2002, declines in PFOS and PFOA concentrations have been observed in human blood (Haug et al ; Kato et al ; Glynn et al ; Olsen et al ; Nøst et al ; Gebbink et al ), human milk (Sundström et al ; Nyberg et al ), and food items including fish from the Baltic (Johansson et al ; Gebbink et al ). However, increasing PFAS concentrations have been reported in some wildlife species from the Baltic region, for example in otters (Roos et al ), herring, and white‐tailed sea eagle (Faxneld et al ). In contrast, gray seal from the Baltic showed decreasing trends for most PFAS except for long‐chain PFCAs (Kratzer et al ).…”

mRNA Expression and Biomarker Responses in Perch at a Biomonitoring Site in the Baltic Sea – Possible Influence of Natural Brominated Chemicals

“…The occurrence of naturally occurring brominated compounds, such as brominated diphenylethers and dioxins, show temporal variations but no clear time trends in perch from Kvädöfjärden (Haglund et al, 2010). Other so-called "emerging pollutants, " such as different PFASs, show generally increasing trends (Holmström et al, 2005;Faxneld et al, 2016;Bignert et al, 2017) in biota such as herring and guillemot eggs in the Baltic Sea.…”