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Legacy and Novel Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Juvenile Seabirds from the U.S. Atlantic Coast
Citation:
Robuck, A., M. Cantwell, J. McCord, L. Addison, M. Pfohl, M. Strynar, Rick McKinney, D. Katz, D. Wiley, AND R. Lohmann. Legacy and Novel Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Juvenile Seabirds from the U.S. Atlantic Coast. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 54(20):12938–12948, (2020). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c01951
Impact/Purpose:
In this study seabirds are employed as sentinels in several coastal estuaries and confirm the presence of legacy PFAS in marine systems along the US East Coast. Novel information is presented describing the occurrence of newer PFAS replacement compounds along with associations between PFAS and biological variables in the seabirds. Overall, our results underscore the continued importance of monitoring PFAS in marine biota to accurately assess the potential exposure and movement of PFAS through marine food webs, especially as changes in regulation and production shift the suite of PFAS found in environmental matrices. Continued biomonitoring of seabirds and other wildlife will result in identifying responses and effects related to ambient PFAS levels and improve our current understanding of ecological effects. Understanding PFAS levels and their potential effects in marine food webs will benefit public and ecological health as well as commerce due to our dependence on coastal marine systems for economic and ecosystem services.
Description:
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are anthropogenic, globally distributed chemicals. Legacy PFAS, including perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), have been regularly detected in marine fauna but little is known about their current levels or the presence of novel PFAS in seabirds. We measured 36 emerging and legacy PFAS in livers from 31 juvenile seabirds from Massachusetts Bay, Narragansett Bay, and the Cape Fear River Estuary (CFRE), United States. PFOS was the major legacy perfluoroalkyl acid present, making up 58% of concentrations observed across all habitats (range: 11–280 ng/g). Novel PFAS were confirmed in chicks hatched downstream of a fluoropolymer production site in the CFRE: a perfluorinated ether sulfonic acid (Nafion byproduct 2; range: 1–110 ng/g) and two perfluorinated ether carboxylic acids (PFO4DA and PFO5DoDA; PFO5DoDA range: 5–30 ng/g). PFOS was inversely associated with phospholipid content in livers from CFRE and Massachusetts Bay individuals, while δ 13C, an indicator of marine versus terrestrial foraging, was positively correlated with some long-chain PFAS in CFRE chick livers. There is also an indication that seabird phospholipid dynamics are negatively impacted by PFAS, which should be further explored given the importance of lipids for seabirds.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Legacy and Novel Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Juvenile Seabirds from the U.S. Atlantic Coast
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.0c01951