Extending the knowledge about PFAS bioaccumulation factors for agricultural plants

Lesmeister, L., Biegel-Engler, A., Lange, F. T., Breuer, J., & Giese, E. (2020). Extending the knowledge about PFAS bioaccumulation factors for agricultural plants. The Science of the Total Environment, (2020). https://doi.org/10.60810/openumwelt-2065

Zusammenfassung englisch

A main source of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) residues in agricultural plants is their uptake from contaminated soil. Bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) can be an important tool to derive recommendations for cultivation or handling of crops prior consumption. This review compiles >4500 soil-to-plant BAFs for 45 PFASs from 24 studies involving 27 genera of agricultural crops. Grasses (Poaceae) provided most BAFs with the highest number of values for perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid. Influencing factors on PFAS transfer like compound-specific properties (hydrophobicity, chain length, functional group, etc.), plant species, compartments, and other boundary conditions are critically discussed. Throughout the literature, BAFs were higher for vegetative plant compartments than for reproductive and storage organs. Decreasing BAFs per additional perfluorinated carbon were clearly apparent for aboveground parts (up to 1.16 in grains) but not always for roots (partly down to zero). Combining all BAFs per single perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acid (C4-C14) and sulfonic acid (C4-C10), median log BAFs decreased by -0.25(+/-0.029) and -0.24(+/-0.013) per fluorinated carbon, respectively. For the first time, the plant uptake of ultra-short-chain (