Trends and Levels of Perfluorinated Compounds in Soil and Sediment Surrounding a Cluster of Metal Plating Industries

ABSTRACT

The occurrence of 16 perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in soil and sediment from the surroundings of a metal plating industrial park was investigated. The PFCs were quantified using isotope dilution ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The ranges of the most commonly detected nine PFCs were 1.71–16.3 ng g⁻¹ dry weight (dw) and 4.72–58.7 ng g⁻¹ dw for soil and sediment, respectively. Higher frequencies of long-chain PFCs were observed in sediment than in soil, which is likely due to the higher organic carbon in the sediment than in soil. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) were the two dominant compounds in soil and sediment. A significant decreasing trend was observed for PFOS as the distance from the metal plating plants increased. In contrast, the concentrations of PFOA were of the same order of magnitude at all sites in soil and sediment. Direct emission from metal plating plants could be the primary source of PFOS. No ecological risks of PFOS were found in the soil and sediment. However, more attention should be paid to the potential risks at the sites near the plating plants, where a slight increase was observed for PFOS and PFOA during 2016–2019.

KEYWORDS:

• Soil
• sediment
• metal plating industry
• perfluorinated compounds

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no potential or actual competing financial interests.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Project (Z181100002418017).