31-18 Some New Insights into the Bioaccumulation of PFAS in Ohio Waterways: Findings from a Public Data Set.

Session: Environmental Geochemistry and Health (Posters)

Poster Booth No.: 44

Presenting Author:

Andrew Moore

Authors:

Moore, Andrew Patterson¹, Dietrich, Matthew ², Krekeler, Mark P. S.³

(1) Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA, (2) Minera Logic, Cincinnati, Minnesota, USA; Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA, (3) Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA,

Abstract:

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly referred to as forever chemicals, are synthetic compounds used since the 1950s to make hydrophobic products and firefighting foam. As their nickname implies, they are highly resistant to environmental degradation, leading to persistence and accumulation in both the environment and organisms. These compounds can lead to adverse human health effects and disrupt ecosystems through similar effects to organisms. Because these compounds are widely used in industry and they cannot be easily broken down, PFAS is a pervasive threat to human and ecological health. Due to the large number of different PFAS chemicals and lack of established toxicological data on many, regulatory frameworks are evolving rapidly and better understanding of PFAS bioaccumulation may help with future toxicological risk assessments. Because PFAS often ends up in waterways from runoff processes, we aimed to study the extent of PFAS contamination and bioaccumulation trends in Ohio rivers by examining water, fish, and macroinvertebrate sample data collected by the Ohio EPA Large River Study. This was accomplished by examining the concentration trends of prevalent PFAS chemicals across different species, while also comparing results from Ohio with similarly sourced data from New Hampshire and a global meta-analysis. Through examination of the data, we found an overall positive correlation between bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) and PFAS chain length across all Ohio species. One specific example was in Ohio bluegill, where longer- chain compounds such as PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid) had considerably higher BAFs when compared to short-chain compounds. Additionally, BAFs differed significantly across Ohio fish species and macroinvertebrates for several PFAS chemicals, related to the type of sampling (whole body versus fillet tissue) and potential trophic-level interactions. Across the Ohio, New Hampshire, and global meta-analysis data, PFOS concentrations displayed the greatest variability in fish and water samples, while other similar compounds displayed less variability. Differences in land use may contribute to greater PFOS concentrations in Ohio versus New Hampshire, as PFOS could be sourced from agricultural runoff and Ohio has a much greater agricultural footprint than New Hampshire. These findings support our hypothesis that PFAS chemicals with longer chains of fluorinated carbons will show greater bioaccumulation in river organisms because of their tendency to accumulate in tissues and organs, and that bioaccumulation varies between species.

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