Morales-McDevitt Maya E, Becanova Jitka, Blum Arlene, Bruton Thomas A, Vojta Simon, Woodward Melissa, Lohmann Rainer
Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 215 South Ferry Rd, Narragansett, 02882 RI, USA.
Green Science Policy Institute, Berkeley, 94709 CA, USA.
Environ Sci Technol Lett. 2021 Oct 12;8(10):897-902. doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00481. Epub 2021 Aug 31.
Sources of exposure to per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) include food, water, and given that humans spend typically 90% of our time indoors, air and dust. Quantifying PFAS prevalent indoors, such as neutral, volatile PFAS, and estimating their exposure risk to humans is thus important. To accurately measure these compounds indoors, polyethylene (PE) sheets were employed and validated as passive detection tools, and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Air concentrations were compared to dust and carpet concentrations reported elsewhere. Partitioning between PE sheets of different thicknesses suggested that interactions of the PEs with the compounds are occurring by absorption. Volatile PFAS, specifically fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs), were ubiquitous in indoor environments. For example, in carpeted Californian kindergarten classrooms, 6:2 FTOH dominated with concentrations ranging from 9-600 ng m, followed by 8:2 FTOH. Concentrations of volatile PFAS from air, carpet and dust were closely related to each other, indicating that carpets and dust are major sources of FTOHs in air. Nonetheless, air posed the largest exposure risk of FTOHs and biotransformed perfluorinated alkyl acids (PFAA) in young children. This research highlights inhalation of indoor air as an important exposure pathway and the need for further reduction of precursors to PFAA.
全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）的暴露源包括食物、水，而且鉴于人类通常90%的时间都在室内，还包括空气和灰尘。因此，量化室内普遍存在的PFAS，如中性挥发性PFAS，并评估其对人类的暴露风险很重要。为了在室内准确测量这些化合物，使用了聚乙烯（PE）片材并将其验证为被动检测工具，然后通过气相色谱 - 质谱法进行分析。将空气浓度与其他地方报告的灰尘和地毯浓度进行了比较。不同厚度PE片材之间的分配表明，PE与这些化合物之间的相互作用是通过吸收发生的。挥发性PFAS，特别是氟调聚物醇（FTOHs），在室内环境中普遍存在。例如，在加利福尼亚州铺设地毯的幼儿园教室中，6:2 FTOH占主导地位，浓度范围为9 - 600 ng/m³，其次是8:2 FTOH。空气、地毯和灰尘中挥发性PFAS的浓度彼此密切相关，这表明地毯和灰尘是空气中FTOHs的主要来源。尽管如此，空气对幼儿构成了FTOHs和生物转化的全氟烷基酸（PFAA）的最大暴露风险。这项研究强调吸入室内空气是一个重要的暴露途径，以及进一步减少PFAA前体的必要性。
