A survey of perfluorinated compounds in surface water and biota including dolphins from the Ganges River and in other waterbodies in India

Abstract

Despite the reports of the occurrence of perfluorochemicals (PFCs) in industrialized nations, information on PFCs in less industrialized countries is meager. In the present study, concentrations and profiles of PFCs were investigated in surface waters (rivers, lakes, coastal seas and untreated sewage; n = 42) including the Ganges River water, and biota such as shrimp (n = 2), fish (n = 28), and Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica; n = 15). PFOS was the dominant PFC found in most of the samples analyzed including water samples except untreated sewage (water: <0.04–3.91 ng L sup(-1); biota: 0.248–27.9 ng g sup(-1) ww). Long-chain (C11–C18) perfluorocarboxylates (PFCAs) were not detected in the water samples (<0.2 ng L sup(-1)), although PFDA (0.061–0.923 ng g sup(-1) ww) and PFUnDA (0.072–0.998 ng g sup(-1) ww) were found in biological samples. The arithmetic mean PFOS concentration found in the liver of Ganges River dolphin was 27.9 ng g sup(-1) ww. Bioconcentration and biomagnifications factors of PFCs were estimated in the Ganges River basin food web. The highest concentration of PFOA, 23.1 ng L sup(-1), was found in untreated sewage samples. Overall, concentrations of PFCs of water and biological samples from India are lower than the concentrations reported for other countries so far. PFC profiles in Indian waters are dominated by PFOS, followed by PFOA, which is different from the pattern reported for other countries such as Korea, Japan and USA, where PFOA was the predominant compound in waters. The flux estimates for PFOS, PFOA and PFNA from the Ganges River in India to the Bay of Bengal were in the range of several hundreds of kilograms per year