Narrowing Down the Identity of Extractable Organofluorine in Killer Whale Blubber ...

• Main Authors: Lauria, Mélanie Zoé, Haque, Faiz, Persson, Cecilia, Wang, Thanh, Simon, Malene, Roos, Anna, Plassmann, Merle, Jonathan, Benskin
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: PFAS; blubber; marine mammals; fluorine mass balance; organofluorine; greenlandic; Killer Whale; Killer whale
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8262908; https://zenodo.org/record/8262908

Unlike many other persistent organic pollutants that accumulate in lipid rich tissues, most known per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) accumulate in protein rich tissues such as liver and blood. The recent discovery of elevated concentrations of unidentified extractable organofluorine (EOF) in killer whale blubber shows this rule might not be applicable to all PFAS. The aim of this study was to narrow down the possible nature of the unknown lipophilic organofluorine. Analysis of a second Greenlandic killer whale confirmed the original findings from Schultes et al. (2020), which showed >90% of unexplained EOF and very similar target PFAS profiles. Thereafter, extracts were subjected to the total oxidizable precursor assay, which revealed low to negligible perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acid formation, indicating the organofluorine substance(s) were not perfluoroalkyl acids-precursors. Solvent extraction using hexane improved extraction efficiency compared to acetonitrile, suggesting a neutral/non-polar ...