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The occurrence of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water in the Czech Republic: a pilot study

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Abstract

Drinking water is one of the main contributors to overall human exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a broad group of environmental contaminants with arising concerns on the impact on human health; therefore, it is necessary to monitor its quality. Here, we present a solid-phase extraction-based method to determine 22 PFAS in water, using 100 mL of the sample. The instrumental analysis employing an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry achieved low limits of quantification (0.025–0.25 ng/L). The validated method (recoveries 70–120% and repeatabilities ≤ 20% at tested concentrations (0.05, 0.1 and 0.5 ng/L)) was applied to 67 tap water and 31 bottled water samples collected in the Czech Republic. The most abundant compounds were perfluorononanoic acid (88% positives; 0.034–13.3 ng/L) and perfluoroheptanoic acid (23% positives; 0.035–0.106 ng/L), respectively. ∑PFAS in positive samples ranged from 0.029 to 300 ng/L (99% positives, median 2.34 ng/L) in tap water data and 0.033 to 4.48 ng/L (32% positives, median 0.097 ng/L) in bottled water samples. Current-use fluoroalkyl ethers, dodecafluoro-3H-4,8-dioxanonanoate and 11-chloroeicosafluoro-3-oxaundecane-1-sulfonate, were occasionally detected in tap. Based on the median data, PFAS intake by an adult from a tap or bottled water represented units of % of the tolerable weekly intake set by the European Food Safety Authority and therefore did not represent a severe risk. The described method and obtained first data on PFAS in the Czech drinking water provided a solid basis for an ongoing national study on the presence of PFAS in tap water.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

source: surface, underground and a mixture of surface and underground water. This calculation was also performed for all tap water samples. Minimum and maximum values in each group are expressed as error bars

Fig. 3

source not specified; BW17: underground source Marianske Lazne)

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Data availability

The data used in the presented study are available in an additional excel file.

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Funding

This work was supported by the project METROFOOD-CZ research infrastructure project (MEYS Grant No. LM2018100), including access to its facilities. Further financial support came from specific university research (MSMT No. 21-SVV/2019 and grant No. A1_FPBT_2021_001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Technicka 3, Prague, 166 28, Czech Republic

    Martina Jurikova, Darina Dvorakova & Jana Pulkrabova

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  1. Martina Jurikova
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  2. Darina Dvorakova
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  3. Jana Pulkrabova
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Contributions

Martina Jurikova: writing — original draft preparation, methodology, validation, formal analysis and investigation, data curation

Darina Dvorakova: methodology, data curation, writing — review and editing

Jana Pulkrabova: supervision, funding acquisition, resources, writing — review and editing

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Correspondence to Jana Pulkrabova.

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Jurikova, M., Dvorakova, D. & Pulkrabova, J. The occurrence of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water in the Czech Republic: a pilot study. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 60341–60353 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20156-7

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