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Opening Remarks for "Analytical Chemistry, Monitoring, and Environmental Fate and Transport" Session at Fluoros 2015
Citation:
Lindstrom, A. Opening Remarks for "Analytical Chemistry, Monitoring, and Environmental Fate and Transport" Session at Fluoros 2015. Analytical Chemistry, Monitoring, and Environmental Fate and Transport Session at Fluoros 2015, Golden, CO, July 12 - 14, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA 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 is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
There have been a number of revolutionary developments during the past decade that have led to a much more comprehensive understanding of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the environment. Improvements in analytical instrumentation have made liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry commonplace, making targeted analysis of historical PFAS commonplace throughout the world. The recent availability of relatively inexpensive high resolution instrumentation (such as quad/TOF or trap /TOF instruments) and correspondingly sophisticated software and related databases has made it possible to accurately predict compound composition and structure, leading to a vast increase in the number and type of compounds that are now observable. With the growing awareness of the ubiquity and diversity of fluorinated compounds, there has been a great increase in the availability of analytical standards, making it possible for researchers to accurately measure previously undescribed or unverified materials in important matrices. Additional advancements, such as the expanded use of “total organic fluorine” methods have made it increasingly clear that we have only been able to characterize a small fraction of what remains to be discovered. Perhaps most importantly, with the application of these increasingly sophisticated approaches, we have developed a much greater understanding of the environmental distribution of fluorinated organic compounds, how they move and are transformed, and how their presence ultimately leads to exposure in the natural environment. The presenters in this session will summarize these key historical developments and the challenges that remain by giving us a description of the state of the science regarding analytical approaches, the occurrence and transformation of PFAS in nature, and summaries of some of the historical and geographical trends in key environmental matrices and species worldwide.
