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Looking Back at 40 Years of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Great Lakes Fish
Citation:
Balgooyen, S., W. Backe, A. Krauss, H. Sluka, B. Blackwell, AND R. Lepak. Looking Back at 40 Years of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Great Lakes Fish. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) North American Annual Meeting November 2023, Louisville, KY, November 12 - 16, 2023. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.29236910
Impact/Purpose:
Poster presented to the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) North American Annual Meeting November 2023. PFAS have been produced industrially since the 1940s. Widespread use of these compounds have led to their presence across many media in the environment. PFAS are found in Great Lakes waters and fish. This study aims to determine long terms trends of PFAS concentrations in Great Lakes fish.
Description:
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of thousands of anthropogenic chemicals that are used in industrial and consumer products for their unique chemical properties. Toxicological data has shown that there are potential health hazards from exposure to certain PFAS compounds. Protecting the Great Lakes watershed and ecosystem from PFAS contamination is of utmost importance, as it provides drinking water to millions of people and is home to a diverse array of aquatic species. Presence of PFAS in the Great Lakes can be measured by analyzing water, sediment, or any number of biological matrices. To analyze historical concentrations of PFAS, there are limited options. Since the hazards of PFAS were not known until decades after production began, concentrations of these compounds were not historically measured in the environment. In this study, we use archived Lake Trout and Walleye from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Fish Monitoring and Surveillance Program (1978-present) to quantify PFAS taken up into the aquatic ecosystem during this period. A suite of 45 PFAS compounds from seven different classes are analyzed to determine the presence of both legacy and emerging PFAS compounds. The novel method used here was developed to analyze a wide range of compounds in particularly fatty fish tissue (up to 50%). Detection limits of perfluorinated compounds range from 50 – 525 ng/kg. Reconstructing historical trends can help understand how previous PFAS reduction initiatives have impacted ecosystems and predict how these ecosystems might respond to future regulations and changes in industrial practices.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Looking Back at 40 Years of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Great Lakes Fish
BALGOOYEN_SETAC_JEC.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 583.177 KB, about PDF)