PARENT SESSION

1H a/b/c - Pesticides, pharmaceuticals, perfluoroalkylated substances, antibiotics
Poster Hall
8:30 AM - Wednesday, 30 April 2003
Chair: de Voogt, P.¹, ¹
Co-chair: Purdy, R.², Pluecken, U.³, Koerdel, W.⁴, Tolls, J.⁵, Kümmerer, K.⁶, ^{2 3 4 5 6}

(WEP/17) Levels of PFOS in biota from The Netherlands.

van Leeuwen, Stefan¹, van der Veen, Ike¹, Leonards, Pim¹, de Boer, Jacob¹, ¹ Netherlands Institute for Fisheries Research, IJmuiden, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT- Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is globally distributed in aquatic organisms. It is generally found in the higherlevels compared with other flourinated substances like perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA) and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHS). In order to assess the levels of PFOS and PFOA in the Netherlands, a LC-ESI-MS method has been established and samples of vertebrates and invertebrates from different marine and freshwater locations were analysed. SPE experiments were conducted to improve clean-up of the fatty biota samples. The highest levels of PFOS were found in biota originating from the Western Scheldt, whereas biota from other sources contained lower levels. These results demonstrate that PFOS is widespread in the Dutch aquatic environment. The high levels in the Western Scheldt are presumably related to industrial activity along the river Scheldt.

Key words: PFOA, PFOS, The Netherlands, Biota