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Biota-Sediment Accumulation Factors for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances
Citation:
Burkhard, L. AND L. Votava. Biota-Sediment Accumulation Factors for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Pensacola, FL, 42(2):277-295, (2022). https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.5526
Impact/Purpose:
Purpose: The paper summarizes reported BSAF data for PFAS universe of chemicals for aquatic organisms. The paper also provides an analysis of gaps and limitations in the currently available data Audience: The paper is intended for two audiences. First, there is growing interest in OLEM (Superfund) in sediments contaminated with PFAS and the relationships between residues in sediment and aquatic organisms. With this summarize data, OLEM will have a better understanding of the connections between them. Second, by assembling the data, EPA’s researchers and other researchers can plan and implement research efforts to fill the gaps and limitations in the current data. Impact: The paper provides to the reader all available BSAF data for PFAS chemicals. The dataset attache with the paper is in a form that reader can easily query and work with without having to grind through the scientific literature. We hope the assembled data will provide a springboard for others to advance our scientific understanding of the PFAS chemicals.
Description:
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely used in commercial products such textiles, firefighting foams, and surface coatings across the globe and some PFAS are known to be bioaccumulative in aquatic species. The ultimate sink for numerous anthropogenic chemicals is the sediments in lakes, rivers, and oceans. To understand the relationship between sediment and aquatic species, a literature search was performed and biota-sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs) data for 17 taxonomic classes were assembled. The carbonyl and sulfonyl PFAS classes were relatively data rich whereas phosphate (no measurements), ether (one chemical), and fluorotelomer (limited number of chemicals) PFAS classes were data poor. Taxonomic classes of Teleostei and Clitellata had the largest BSAFs whereas Magnoliopsida and Bivalvia had the smallest BSAFs, and BSAF values >1 (kg-OC/kg-wet wt) were very rare. Across all studies, median (±standard deviation) whole-body Teleostei BSAFs for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic acid (kg-OC/kg-wet wt) were 0.0580 (±0.445, n = 60) and 0.00283 (±0.103,24), respectively. Laboratory-measured BSAFs were consistently larger than field-measured BSAFs, that is, 53 of 67 comparisons were larger (80%). Comparing BSAFs across taxonomic classes, 72% of the BSAFs were significantly different (α = 0.05). Comparing BSAFs within a taxonomic class, BSAFs were significantly different for 63% of the taxonomic classes. Elimination kinetics for benthic invertebrates suggests steady-state conditions might be reached in the 28-day uptake portion of a laboratory bioaccumulation test for some test species. The largest data gaps, beyond limited measurements, are understanding the effects of concentration and mixtures on bioaccumulation from sediments, quantifying the difference, if any, in BSAFs between freshwater and brackish/marine ecosystems, and models for predicting BSAFs based on concentrations in sediment.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Biota-Sediment Accumulation Factors for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36398857/