Abstract
In this paper, we focus on perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) in water environment of 21 cities in 10 countries (i.e., Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Sweden, Turkey and Canada). 1,160 samples were collected in different water environments (e.g., river, lake, wetland, reservoir, wastewater treatment plant, residence, and sea) from Nov. 2004 to Dec. 2007. The main conclusions obtained in this study are as follows: 1) The average concentration of PFOS in the surface water of rivers was more than 10.0 ng · l-1 in Osaka. The average concentration of PFOS in residential tap water was more than 10.0 ng · l-1 in Bangkok and Taipei. 2) The average concentration of PFOA in the surface water of rivers was more than 1,000 ng · l-1 (median : 48.6 ng · l-1) in Osaka, and it was more than 15 ng · l-1 in Kyoto, Shenzhen, Khon Kaen, and Singapore. The average concentration of PFOA in residential tap water was more than 10 ng · l-1 in Osaka and Okayama in Japan. 3) The number of cities where the difference between river water and tap water was less than 1.0 ng · l-1 in the median concentrations of dissolved PFOS and PFOA was 16 for PFOS and 11 for PFOA, respectively. 4) The dissolved PFOS and PFOA concentrations in effluent were higher than those in influent of most wastewater treatment plants (16/19 for PFOS, 38/45 for PFOA).
