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Assessing PFAS in Water and Fish: Unveiling Abundance, Sources, and Human Exposure Pathways: A Comprehensive Case Study Exploring the Impact of PFAS in a Local Watershed in Kalmar
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Department of Biology and Environmental Science.
2023 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

The human-made group of chemicals known as PFAS is one of today’s large, multivariable problems. Its use in industries and everyday goods is causing it to spread rapidly and accumulate abundantly in every part of the biosphere. Soil, atmosphere, and water all act as a medium for both storage and spread of PFAS, facilitating their expansion to the most remote places on the planet and its inhabitants. Sources for the pollution are generally associated with highly elevated local pollution, a phenomenon found in the investigated stream, Törnebybäcken, in Kalmar. This stream was investigated for both background pollution, by sampling precipitation and surface water in the stream before, and source pollution, by sampling suspected high pollution inlets and the surface water of the stream after Kalmar airport. Furthermore, the study investigates the pollution in both muscle tissue and whole fish samples from fishes living in Kalmar wetlands, an area supplied with water from Törnebybäcken after Kalmar airport. The results of the study found low background concentrations in precipitation and surface waters before the airport (≤15 ng/L PFAS11), but a drastic increase (≈100 ng/L PFAS11) after the highly polluted culverts of drainage water emptying into the river (848 - 1226 ng/L PFAS11). The fish samples collected in Kalmar wetlands contained high concentrations of PFAS, of which >95% consisted of PFOS. The highest concentrations for whole fish were found in small cyprinids (Cyprinidae) (350 ng/g PFOS) and medium-sized perch (Perca fluviatilis) (300 ng/g PFOS) and the highest concentrations in muscle tissue were found in large pike (Esox lucius) (89 ng/g PFOS). Kalmar municipality has a responsibility to protect its inhabitants from high exposure to PFAS, and therefore, should investigate potential regulation and remediation efforts to decrease the current heightened PFAS load in the stream. Additionally, further studies are needed to understand how PFAS is spreading throughout the wetlands and how this may impact human health in the area. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023. , p. 34
Keywords [en]
PFAS, Kalmar, Water pollution, Fish pollution exposure.
National Category
Biological Sciences Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-122037OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-122037DiVA, id: diva2:1769173
External cooperation
Kalmar kommun
Subject / course
Biology
Educational program
Biology Programme, 180 credits
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2023-06-20 Created: 2023-06-16 Last updated: 2023-06-20Bibliographically approved

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