PARENT SESSION
SA9 - Fluorinated Chemicals in the Environment
Chair: Mabury, Scott1, 1 80 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, CANADA
Co-chair: Solomon, Keith 2, 2 Bovey Building, Gordon Street, Guelph, ON, CANADA
8:00 AM to 12:00 PM - Sunday, 17 November 2002
Room Ballroom E
(084) Perfluorinated acids in Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) from the Canadian Arctic and Greenland .
Smithwick, Marla*,1, Martin, Jonathan2, Sonne-Hansen, Christian3, Mabury, Scott4, Solomon, Keith5, Muir, Derek6, 1 University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada2 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada3 National Environmental Research Institute, Roskilde, Denmark4 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada5 University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada6 National Water Research Institute, Burlington, Ontario, Canada
ABSTRACT- Perfluorinated acids (PFAs) have been detected globally in the liver and blood of a wide range of organisms. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is the major PFA in Alaskan polar bear liver samples, ranging in concentration from 175-680 ng/g. The objective of this study was to look at PFA concentrations in polar bear livers from a wide range of locations in the Arctic to determine geographic trends. Liver samples were homogenized in sodium carbonate and extracted into methyl-t-butyl ether using an ion pairing agent. Quantification was performed through high performance LC/MS/MS using perfluorobutane sulfonate and perfluoroheptanoic acid as internal standards. The presence of PFOS was confirmed in all samples. The average concentration of PFOS in East Greenland (Scoresby Sund) polar bear samples was 900 ng/g, which is higher than concentrations in samples from Alaska and the Canadian Arctic. Similar spatial trends of increased contamination in East Greenland relative to the Canadian Arctic have been shown for PCBs, suggesting that sources may be similar to other persistent organic pollutants. By using a relatively large sample size (0.5 g) we were able to quantify perfluorooctanoic acid (mean concentration 15 ng/g), and perfluorohexane sulfonate (7 ng/g) in all samples. We also confirmed the presence of several longer chained perfluoroalkyl caboxylates, the source of which is presently unknown.
Key words: perfluorinated acids, polar bear, arctic, bioaccumulation