Legacy and Emerging Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in the Aquatic Environment - Sources, Sinks and Long-Range Transport to the Arctic

• Main Author: Joerss, Hanna Katharina
• Other Authors: Steiger, Michael
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky 2020
• Subjects: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances; Environmental pollutants; Environmental chemistry; Per- und polyfluorierte Alkylsubstanzen; Umweltschadstoffe; Umweltchemie; 540: Chemie; 43.12: Umweltchemie; ddc:540: Arctic; Human health
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:18-ediss-89174; https://ediss.sub.uni-hamburg.de/handle/ediss/8749

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a group of more than 4,700 anthropogenic chemicals that have been produced for over 70 years and used in a broad range of industrial applications and consumer products. Due to their adverse effects on human health and the environment, attention has been drawn to so-called “long-chain” PFASs as global contaminants since the late 1990s. Along with regulatory actions and voluntary industry initiatives to restrict the production, use and release of these chemicals, an industrial transition has taken place. This includes a geographical shift of production from countries in Europe and North America to countries in Asia and a transition to replacement chemicals, of which many are still PFASs. While regulated long-chain PFASs have been well investigated (“legacy PFASs”), potential adverse properties, environmental occurrence and fate of other PFASs are largely unknown (“emerging PFASs”). In addition, only a small amount of PFASs on the global market is monitored using conventional compound-specific analytical methods. This raises the question if the commonly analysed PFASs are representative or if they make up only a small fraction of anthropogenic PFAS releases. This thesis aimed at identifying which emerging PFASs are of relevance in the European coastal environment and at investigating their potential long-range transport to the Arctic. A comparison to legacy PFASs was to be made and knowledge gaps regarding the ultimate sinks of PFASs in the aquatic environment were intended to be filled. Moreover, it was the aim to characterize the unknown fraction of PFASs in German and Chinese river water impacted by industrial point sources. To achieve these aims, analytical methods for the selective and sensitive determination of 29 legacy and emerging PFASs in seawater, river water and sediment were developed and validated. The instrumental analysis was performed by means of liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Method detection limits were in the ...