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Review
. 2021 Jan 20;22(3):995.
doi: 10.3390/ijms22030995.

Legacy and Emerging Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances: Analytical Techniques, Environmental Fate, and Health Effects

Richard A Brase  1   2 , Elizabeth J Mullin  1 , David C Spink  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Legacy and Emerging Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances: Analytical Techniques, Environmental Fate, and Health Effects

Richard A Brase et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Due to their unique chemical properties, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been used extensively as industrial surfactants and processing aids. While several types of PFAS have been voluntarily phased out by their manufacturers, these chemicals continue to be of ecological and public health concern due to their persistence in the environment and their presence in living organisms. Moreover, while the compounds referred to as "legacy" PFAS remain in the environment, alternative compounds have emerged as replacements for their legacy predecessors and are now detected in numerous matrices. In this review, we discuss the historical uses of PFAS, recent advances in analytical techniques for analysis of these compounds, and the fate of PFAS in the environment. In addition, we evaluate current biomonitoring studies of human exposure to legacy and emerging PFAS and examine the associations of PFAS exposure with human health impacts, including cancer- and non-cancer-related outcomes. Special focus is given to short-chain perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) and ether-substituted, polyfluoroalkyl alternatives including hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA; tradename GenX), 4,8-dioxa-3H-perfluorononanoic acid (DONA), and 6:2 chlorinated polyfluoroethersulfonic acid (6:2 Cl-PFESA; tradename F-53B).

Keywords: GenX; HFPO-DA; PFAS; biomonitoring; biotransformation; carcinogenicity; immunotoxicity; landfills; mass spectrometry; per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Examples of various PFAS subclasses (with non-polymeric examples shown) and the chemical structures of compounds representative of these subclasses.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Illustration depicting some of the pathways for the long-range, global transport of PFAS in the environment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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