Title: Perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid in Qiantang River waters of China

Authors: Hui-Ying Xu; Wei Wang; Xiao-Lu Xu

Addresses: College of Biology and Environment Engineering, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou-310015, China ' Zhejiang Surveying Institute of Estuary and Coast, Hangzhou-310008, China ' College of Biology and Environment Engineering, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou-310015, China

Abstract: Recently, there has been increasing concern about perfluorinated compounds, especially perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). To characterise the seasonal change of PFOS and PFOA in the Qiantang River waters of China, 48 water samples from March to September in 2013 were collected and analysed in this study. The concentrations of PFOS and PFOA were n.d-1.186 ng/L and from 5.35-137.5 ng/L, respectively. PFOS has been observed at a low concentration in these samples, while PFOA was detected in 100% of the samples with higher PFOA concentrations. PFOA concentrations were far higher than those of PFOS in all the samples, which were influenced by the inflows of the chemicals from a lot of the textile dyeing industry along the south bank of the river. Although the PFOS and PFOA concentrations in Qiantang River water samples did not exceed this provisional health advisory level (limit) established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for PFOS and PFOA in drinking waters of 200 ng

Keywords: perfluorooctane sulfonate; PFOS; perfluorooctanoic acid; PFOA; surface water; China; chemicals; water pollution; textile dyeing; textile industry; drinking water.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2015.072110

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2015 Vol.57 No.1/2, pp.17 - 26

Received: 12 May 2014
Accepted: 10 Mar 2015

Published online: 30 Sep 2015 *

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