Perfluorochemicals (PFCs) are an emerging class of organic contaminants of global concern.Perflorooctanoic acid (PFOA, also abbreviated C8) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) aretwo primary PFCs. PFOA and PFOS are reportedly persistent in the environment andbioaccumulate with controversial adverse health effects to wildlife and people. According toUSEPA's report, PFOA is a "likely" human carcinogen and can remain in human body for up tofour years. Toxicity tests have raised concerns about potential developmental, reproductive, andsystematic effects of PFOS. However, the harmful exposure levels are still in debate and furtherrisk assessment is required to understand the toxicity of PFOA and PFOS. Measuring PFOA and PFOS concentrations in drinking waters requires a highly sensitive analytical method. One of major problemsassociated with trace level analysis of PFOA and PFOS is background contamination in theanalytical blanks. The background may result from the Teflon parts that are often used in manyanalytical instruments, solvent generation and purification systems, and sample collection andpreparation devices. This work presents a highly sensitive liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI/MS/MS) method, coupled with an effective solid-phaseextraction (SPE) sample preparation technique, to meet the need for the measurement oftrace level PFOA and PFOS in drinking waters. In this research, drinking water samples fromdifferent geographic regions throughout the United States were analyzed to providecontamination levels of PFOA and PFOS. The internal standard (IS) was 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-4-(pentafluorophenyl)phenol. The surrogate standard (SS) was 4'-trifluoromethyl)-2-biphenylcarboxylic acid. Sample preparation and analysis, accuracy, precision, and method detection limits are all discussed. Includes 8 references, tables.
