Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have been used in commerce and industry (e.g., fire-fighting foams, insecticides, photo-imaging, metal plating, carpets, upholstery, etc.) in the past 60 years. However, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), which is one of the species of the PFAS, have been restricted to use in product or manufacturing except for special uses, such as, fire-fighting foam, insecticide, metal plating, and so on, by the Stockholm convention in 2009. Through the regulation activities on PFOS use and production in Japan, inventories of PFOS have been reported and a stockpile of PFOS-containing aqueous fighting-fire foams (AFFFs) has been disclosed as their major contribution. However, a distribution of the PFOS-containing AFFF in the nationwide and their environmental contribution have been still unclear in the current status. Therefore, we tried to comprehensively elucidate the chemical component of PFOS-containing AFFF and find key compounds as merkers using liquid chromatograph (Ultimate 3000, Dionex) coupled with high resolution mass spectrometer (Exactive, ThermoFisher). The raw material of an alcohol-resistant AFFF (AR-AFFF), whose products was considered to be stocked for class B fires, for example in chemical plant and Japanese self-defense force, and several materials of fluorine-containing product were supplied as the analytical samples for the comprehensive analysis. In addition, biodegradation tests according the OECD guideline 301C were performed based on our assumption that the component in AR-AFFF will be detected in the environment after exposed by this kind of degradation process. As the results, PFOS and betaine structured compound which contains C8F17SO2NH group have been detected in the AR-AFFF sample. The newly detected betaine structured compounds were not degraded by the 4 week-long degradation test, though PFOS showed the trend of degradation. This compound has potential to be a chemical marker of the AR-AFFF and be a metric to evaluate the release of the stocks into the environment.

Exploring chemical markers for environmental release of perfluorooctane sulfonate in aqueous fire-fighting foams using comprehensive analysis with high resolution mass spectrometry

251st National Meeting (2016)

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