Year: 2013
Type: other
Abstract: Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), especially short chain fluorinated alkyl sulfonates and carboxylates, are ubiquitously found in the environment. This paper aims at giving an overview of PFAA concentrations found in European surface, groundwaters and drinking waters and the behavior of these compounds in the drinking water treatment steps. Main sources of PFAAs to the water environment are municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants. Treated landfill leachate also showed to be an important source of PFAAs to surface waters. Existing data suggest central and south European rivers to have higher concentrations and mass discharges of PFAAs than Northern European countries. However, this conclusion might be an artifact due to differences of monitoring activities in different regions. High PFAA levels in groundwater are often restricted to some contaminated areas, e.g., due to illegal waste deposition on agricultural land or in the vicinity of a fluoropolymer producing factory. Sites with former fire-fighting activities are also potential “hotspot” areas. Concentrations encountered in drinking water remain fairly low on average. Typical concentrations are in the low ng/L with the exception of highly contaminated areas, like in the rivers Mohne and Ruhr in Germany. The concentrations encountered in drinking water depend on the treatment technologies used to purify the water. Drinking water prepared with activated carbon or reversed osmosis will in general contain lower concentrations in tap water than in the raw water. However, the efficiency of water treatment depends much on the local boundary conditions.
Author: Christian Eschauzier
Language: English
Subfield: Environmental Chemistry
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: European Commission
OpenAlex ID: W1830854573