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Perfluorinated alkylated substances in vegetables collected in four European countries; occurrence and human exposure estimations

  • Nordic Research on Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)
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Abstract

The human diet is recognised as one possible major exposure route to the overall perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS) burden of the human population, resulting directly from contamination of dietary food items, as well as migration of PFAS from food packaging or cookware. Most European countries carry out national monitoring programs (food basket studies) to monitor contamination with pollutants. Usually, for PFASs, non-coordinated approaches are used in Europe, since food basket studies are mainly carried out by national authorities following national requirements and questions, making comparisons between different countries difficult. A harmonised sampling campaign collecting similar food items in a uniform procedure enabling direct comparison between different regions in Europe was designed. We selected four countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy and Norway), representing the four regions of Europe: West, East, South and North. In spring 2010 and 2011, 20 different types of vegetables were sampled in Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy and Norway. Perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) were the main group of detected PFASs, with perfluorinated octanoic acid (PFOA) as the most abundant PFCA (with exception of samples from Czech Republic), followed by perfluorinated hexanoic acid and perfluorinated nonanoic acid. Dietary intake estimates for PFOA show only low human exposure due to vegetable consumption for adults and children, mostly governed by high intake of potatoes.

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Acknowledgements

EU FP7 PERFOOD project (www.perfood.eu) grant agreement no. 227525: Scientific Coordinator Prof. Pim de Voogt, UvA-Universiteit van Amsterdam-IBED, The Netherlands. We appreciate the collaboration of all partners within the PERFOOD project, especially everybody involved in sampling and sample preparations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. High North Research Centre on Climate and the Environment, NILU, FRAM, Tromsø, Norway

    Dorte Herzke & Sandra Huber

  2. Department of Biology, SPERHE, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Lieven Bervoets & Wendy D’Hollander

  3. Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jana Hajslova & Jana Pulkrabova

  4. Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Toxicological Chemistry Unit, Rome, Italy

    Gianfranco Brambilla & Stefania Paola De Filippis

  5. Federal Institute for Risk Assessment Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Stefanie Klenow & Gerhard Heinemeyer

  6. IBED-ESS, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Pim de Voogt

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  1. Dorte Herzke
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  2. Sandra Huber
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  3. Lieven Bervoets
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  4. Wendy D’Hollander
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  8. Stefania Paola De Filippis
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  9. Stefanie Klenow
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  10. Gerhard Heinemeyer
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  11. Pim de Voogt
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Correspondence to Dorte Herzke.

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Responsible editor: Hongwen Sun

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Herzke, D., Huber, S., Bervoets, L. et al. Perfluorinated alkylated substances in vegetables collected in four European countries; occurrence and human exposure estimations. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20, 7930–7939 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1777-8

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