Abstract
Perfluorinated surfactants (PFSs) such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) have been detected worldwide in surface water, groundwater, seawater, drinking water and aquatic organisms. In 2009, PFOS was added to the listing of the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants, and PFOS and PFOA were also added to the items for further study of drinking water quality standard in Japan. Concerns and interests about PFSs in water environments are rapidly increasing. In this review, we organized knowledge of sources, occurrences, removal efficiencies of treatments, toxicities, bioaccumulation, management and regulations of several PFS homologues including perfluorononanoate (PFNA) and their precursors, and provided perspectives on PFS problems. In this review, we also highlighted that relatively longer-chain perfluorinated carboxylates (PFCAs) such as PFNA and perfluorodecanoate (PFDA) are more toxic and bioaccumulative than relatively shorter-chain PFCAs such as PFOA, that PFNA extensively pollutes water environments in Japan compared with the case in other countries, and that the loadings of longer-chain PFCAs have not been reduced despite the reduction of PFOS and PFOA. The pollution by PFNA is particularly of concern in Japan. Thus, management and risk control of PFS homologues including longer-chain PFSs such as PFNA are now required.
