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Perfluoroalkyl Acids in Marine Organisms from Lake Shihwa, Korea

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Abstract

To our knowledge, this is the first report of concentrations of perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and other perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAs) in marine organisms from the industrialized region of Korea. Concentrations of eight PFAs were determined in three species of fish (mullet, shad, and rockfish) and three species of marine invertebrates (blue crab, oyster, and mussel) from Lake Shihwa, Korea. This is an area in which relatively great concentrations of PFAs in water and in adjacent industrial effluents have been reported. PFOS was the dominant PFA in marine organisms and most PFOS concentrations were greater than the sum of all other PFAs. The mean concentrations of PFOS were 8.1 × 10 and 3.6 × 10 ng/g, wet weight in liver and blood of fish, respectively. Perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) were also found in fish, but their concentrations were 10-fold less than those for PFOS. Of the PFCAs measured in fish, concentrations of the longer-chain perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnA) were the greatest. Concentrations of PFOS in soft tissues of blue crabs decreased as a function of distance from the shore where inputs from the industrialized areas are discharged into Lake Shihwa. PFOS was the only PFA detectable in mussels and oysters with a mean of 0.5 ± 0.2 and 1.1 ± 0.3 ng/g, wet weight, respectively. Concentrations of PFUnA were positively correlated with perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) in both the liver and blood of fish, which suggests a common source of these two PFCAs in this area. Hazard quotients developed for fish species were all less than 1.0 for fish collected in Lake Shihwa.

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Acknowledgments

Professor Giesy was supported by the Canada Research Chair program and an at-large Chair Professorship at the Department of Biology and Chemistry and Research Centre for Coastal Pollution and Conservation, City University of Hong Kong. The research was supported by a Discovery Grant from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Project # 6807) and a grant from the Western Economic Diversification Canada (Project # 6971 and 6807). The authors wish to acknowledge the support of an instrumentation grant from the Canadian Foundation for Infrastructure. This research was supported in part by a grant from the John P. and Susan E. Giesy Foundation to Michigan State University. The authors wish to thank Dr. Tae-Seob Choi (NeoEnbiz Co., Korea) for his technical assistance during sample collection and analysis.

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Yoo, H., Yamashita, N., Taniyasu, S. et al. Perfluoroalkyl Acids in Marine Organisms from Lake Shihwa, Korea. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 57, 552–560 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-008-9282-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-008-9282-7

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