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Occurrence of perfluorinated organic acids in the North and Baltic seas. Part 1: distribution in sea water

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Abstract

Purpose

Due to their high water solubilities and mobilities, persistent, polar perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) such as perfluorinated carboxylates and sulfonates are likely to end up in the oceans. In part 1 of this study, their distribution in North and Baltic Sea water is reported, being of special interest because these seas are surrounded by highly industrialized countries with high population densities.

Methods

A combination of solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry was used after optimisation to determine nine PFCs with chain lengths of C4 to C10 in water samples at ultra-trace levels.

Results

The observed concentration distribution and gradients were explained by oceanographic mixing processes and currents. The big rivers were identified as major input sources. At the mouth of the river Elbe, concentrations of 9 ng/L were observed for perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), and 8 ng/L for perfluorooctylsulfonate (PFOS); all other PFC concentrations ranged from 0.6 to 1.7 ng/L. At coastal stations, concentrations decreased to 3.8 ng/L (PFOA) and 1.8 ng/L (PFOS), dropping to 0.13 and 0.09 ng/L, respectively, towards the open sea. Along the Dutch coast, high perfluorobutylsulfonate concentrations (3.9 ng/L) were observed as regional characteristics. In the Baltic Sea, fairly even PFC distributions with low gradients were observed. Again, PFOA and PFOS were the major compounds (up to 1.1 and 0.9 ng/L).

Conclusion

The results underline the necessity to include PFCs in marine monitoring programs. Water was found to be a good matrix for monitoring environmental levels, sources, and transport pathways of PFCs.

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Notes

  1. In the beginning of the investigations, as long as no labeled PFCs were available, labeled pesticides were used because of the similarity in their analysis. Later, it was proven by a parallel quantification with deuterated mecoprop and labeled PFOA that the different internal standards yield similar results (differences were in the range of 10–20%).

  2. Although PFC concentration data were available for pure Elbe freshwater (salinity < 0.5) from station Stade, the data were not used for the correlation because of statistical reasons (very inhomogeneous data distribution). By including these data, the correlation coefficients would increase to 0.982 (PFOA) and 0.998 (PFOS)

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the German Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt, Berlin) by the project No. 202 22 213.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, Bernhard-Nocht Str. 78, 20359, Hamburg, Germany

    Norbert Theobald, Christina Caliebe & Wolfgang Gerwinski

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King Platz, Hamburg, Germany

    Heinrich Hühnerfuss

  3. Federal Environment Agency, Bismarckplatz 1, Berlin, Germany

    Peter Lepom

Authors
  1. Norbert Theobald
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  2. Christina Caliebe
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  3. Wolfgang Gerwinski
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  4. Heinrich Hühnerfuss
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  5. Peter Lepom
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Correspondence to Norbert Theobald.

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Responsible editor: Ake Bergman

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Theobald, N., Caliebe, C., Gerwinski, W. et al. Occurrence of perfluorinated organic acids in the North and Baltic seas. Part 1: distribution in sea water. Environ Sci Pollut Res 18, 1057–1069 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-011-0451-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-011-0451-2

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