2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/25/2021 | 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM | DETECTION OF PER- AND POLYFLUOROALKYL SUBSTANCES (PFAS) IN GREAT LAKES FISH USING A NOVEL TECHNOLOGY | Virtual Platform

DETECTION OF PER- AND POLYFLUOROALKYL SUBSTANCES (PFAS) IN GREAT LAKES FISH USING A NOVEL TECHNOLOGY

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made fluorinated organic chemical compounds resistant to degradation, making them extremely persistent in the environment and able to bioaccumulate in wildlife and humans. Traditional methods of PFAS analysis (LC-MS/MS) are time-consuming and expensive, but we applied a novel low-cost alternative in particle-induced gamma-ray emission spectroscopy (PIGE) to measure fluorine in fish tissue. PIGE is a rapid screening method that measures total organic fluorine in a sample as a surrogate for the 1000s of possible PFAS compounds in the environment. Our objectives for this study were: (1) determine the relationship between PIGE and traditional LC-MS/MS for fish tissues and (2) determine whether total fluorine in Lake Michigan sportfish differs across species, gender, and size (total length). Results show that Lake Michigan fish have elevated total organic fluorine concentrations compared to fish from Alaska with lower environmental fluorine exposure. Overall, our method development allows for rapid estimation of PFAS in fish as a screening tool from which selected samples can undergo analysis for specific compounds with LC-MS/MS. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the extent of PFAS contamination in aquatic food webs.

Food webs
Interdisciplinary
Anthropogenic

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Presenters/Authors

Whitney Conard (), Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, wconard@nd.edu;