Abstract
The dust on indoor and outdoor surfaces of the window glasses were collected using sterile cotton balls in 11 cities from China. Two sampling campaigns were conducted with the time interval of 7 days to investigate the accumulation especially during the Spring festival holidays. Twenty-nine perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAA) were quantified to investigate concentration, composition, and toddlers’ exposure. The concentrations of ∑PFAA ranged from no detection (nd) to 43 ng/m2 (mean 8.9 ± 10 ng/m2). Perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) was detected in 78% samples and accounted for 55 ± 21% of ∑PFAA concentrations. 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonic acid (6:2 FTSA) and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) were detected in more than 50% samples indicating the use of alternatives. Fluorotelomer carboxylic acid (FTCA) and fluorotelomer unsaturated acid (FTUCA) were found in the dust, implying the degradation of fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOH). The highest concentration of ∑PFAA (43 ng/m2) was found in outdoor dust from Xinzhou, Shanxi Province. Higher ∑PFAA concentrations were found in indoor dust than outdoor in 6 paired samples (3 from Feb. 14 and 3 from Feb. 21). In Tianjin and Handan, the concentrations of ∑PFAA from outdoor surfaces were higher in sampling campaign I (SC I, Feb. 21) than in sampling campaign II (SC II, Feb. 14), implying intensive outdoor release. The exposure of 2-year-old toddlers to PFAA via hand-to-mouth ingestion and dermal absorption was estimated; the mean values of intake were 2.1 and 1.5 pg/kg body weight, respectively, assuming an exposure time of 1 h.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the generous colleagues and students who collected the samples during 2018 Spring Festival.
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This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 41977310).
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ZZ: conceptualization, methodology, software, writing—review & editing, data curation; LY: data curation, investigation; HQ: writing—original draft preparation, data curation; YL: data curation, investigation; XC: data curation, writing—reviewing and editing; XH: visualization, investigation, data curation; TL: resources, funding acquisition, writing—reviewing and editing, project administration; QL: conceptualization, investigation, writing—reviewing and editing, supervision; HS: resources, project administration.
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The samples collected in this study were dust in households. No human or animal tissue, organs, or cells were involved in the experiment. The sampling campaign used cotton balls which was not harmful to human subjects, and the sampling processes did not use harmful solvent. The ethical committee approved the sampling campaign and the experiments.
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Zhao, Z., Yue, L., Qiao, H. et al. Perfluoroalkyl acids in dust on residential indoor/outdoor window glass in Chinese cities: occurrence, composition, and toddler exposure. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 13881–13892 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16653-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16653-w