Perfluorinated alkylated substances and brominated flame retardants in serum of the Czech adult population.

Persistent organic pollutants, such as perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFASs) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are widespread in the environment and most of them are bioaccumulated in wildlife and humans. The present study is the first investigation to reveal the PFAS and BFR levels of serum samples in the adult population of the Czech Republic. Altogether, 300 serum samples from blood donors in four cities were examined. In all samples 19 PFASs and 33 BFRs, including some of their metabolites, were targeted. The analyses were performed using ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry or gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (according to the type of analyte). PFASs, with the carbon chain length C6 and higher, dominated in all samples. Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS; median: 2.43ng/mL), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA; median: 0.756ng/mL), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA; median: 0.145ng/mL) and perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS; median: 0.184ng/mL) were detected in 100% of samples. Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA; median: 0.325ng/mL) and perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUdA; median: 0.058ng/mL) in 99.7% and 96.0% of samples, respectively. We observed statistically significant associations (p<0.05) between selected PFAS concentrations and the locality, gender, age of donors and education level. None of the BFRs was detected above the LOQ in more than 9% of the samples. The most frequently detected representatives of this group were congeners of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, namely BDE-47 (in 8.7%; range: 0.496-5.44ng/g lipid weight (l.w.)), BDE-99 (in 6.0%; range: 0.706-9.46ng/g l.w.), BDE-153 (in 7.3%; range: 0.736-6.44ng/g l.w.) and BDE-209 (in 7.0%; range: 13.7-2693ng/g l.w.).