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Perfluorinated Compounds in House Dust from Ohio and North Carolina, USA
Citation:
STRYNAR, M. J. AND A. B. LINDSTROM. Perfluorinated Compounds in House Dust from Ohio and North Carolina, USA. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Indianapolis, IN, 42(10):3751-3756, (2008).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools are improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
The perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), have come under increasing scrutiny due to their persistence in the environment, global distribution, and animal toxicity. Given that human exposure routes for these compounds remain poorly characterized, the potential role of house dust needs to be more completely evaluated. In this study, new methods for the analysis of 10 target PFAAs and 3 fluorinated telomer alcohols (FTOHs) were developed and applied to dust samples collected from homes (n=102) and day care centers (10) in Ohio and North Carolina. FTOHs were analyzed by GC/MS after sonic extraction and solid phase extraction cleanup. PFAAs were analyzed after extraction by LC-MS/MS. PFOS and PFOA were found to be the most prominent compounds in this analysis, occurring in over 95% of the samples at median concentrations of 201 and 142 ng/g of dust, respectively. Maximal concentrations of PFOS were at 12,100 ng/g, PFOA at 1,960 ng/g, and perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHS) at 35,700 ng/g. The 8:2 FTOH, which is volatile and can degrade to PFOA, had a maximum concentration of 1660 ng/g dust. These results indicate that perfluorinated compounds are present in house dust at levels that may be important for human exposure.