{"id":15175,"date":"2020-10-05T16:05:05","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T20:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/?p=15175"},"modified":"2021-08-31T16:59:09","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T20:59:09","slug":"newer-pfas-compound-detected-for-first-time-in-arctic-seawater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/newer-pfas-compound-detected-for-first-time-in-arctic-seawater\/","title":{"rendered":"Newer PFAS compound detected for first time in Arctic seawater"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15178\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15178\" style=\"width: 364px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-third_column wp-image-15178\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1022\/Sunderland_Artic_image-364x199.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"364\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1022\/Sunderland_Artic_image-364x199.gif 364w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1022\/Sunderland_Artic_image-200x110.gif 200w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1022\/Sunderland_Artic_image-150x82.gif 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 364px) 100vw, 364px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15178\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image caption: Schematic of PFAS moving through the Arctic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While two of the most notorious PFAS compounds\u2014PFOA and PFOS\u2014have been voluntarily phased out of production by industry in the United States and Europe, they are still widely detected in the environment. Intended as a safer replacement for PFOA, hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid (HFPO-DA or colloquially known as \u201cGenX\u201d) is now thought to pose similar health concerns and be just as persistent in the environment. Collaborating with researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht in Germany, Dr. Elsie Sunderland, STEEP Project 1 lead, and her PhD student, Charlotte Wagner, were involved in a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1021\/acs.est.0c00228\"><strong>study<\/strong><\/a> investigating the long-range, oceanic transport of PFAS to the Arctic Ocean. The study analyzed 29 PFAS compounds in seawater samples collected from an icebreaker research ship along a transect from Europe\u2019s North Sea to the Arctic in the summer of 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers detected 11 legacy and replacement PFAS in the ocean water, including PFOA, PFHpA and PFNA, and for the first time in Artic seawater, HFPO-DA. This provides evidence for its long-range transport to remote areas. Two east-west transects were analyzed in Fram Strait, located between Greenland and Svalbard, which is a major gateway to the Arctic Ocean. The seven depth profiles revealed higher PFAS concentrations in the surface water layer than in intermediate layers and a negligible amount at depths below 1000 meters. The total PFAS concentration was higher in the surface water exiting the Arctic than the water entering the Arctic Ocean from the North Atlantic. The PFAS composition in the outgoing water indicated a greater importance of atmospheric deposition compared to ocean circulation, and a higher retention of the long-chain compounds in melting snow and ice.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.acs.org\/content\/acs\/en\/pressroom\/presspacs\/2020\/acs-presspac-july-29-2020\/newer-pfas-compound-detected-for-first-time-in-arctic-seawater.html\"><strong>Read full story<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As concerns rise about pervasiveness of PFAS in the environment, scientists examine the most remote regions on Earth. A new research study investigating 29 PFAS compounds in the Arctic Ocean finds HFPO-DA for the first time in Arctic seawater and provides evidence for the increasing importance of atmospheric deposition to long-range transport of PFAS. Read more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002,"featured_media":15178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15181,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15175\/revisions\/15181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}