This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Coastal residents may be worried about exposure to forever chemicals from sea spray during hot summer months, but York University researchers found little evidence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination from marine aerosols, a finding that surprised them. The study, published in Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, looked specifically at areas affected by sea spray from the Atlantic Ocean generated by waves breaking along the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
However, despite the region's windy, marine location, the researchers found it was not an issue as previously thought. "We designed this study specifically to see if sea spray was contributing to a mobilization of PFAS in coastal regions, and Newfoundland is a great place to do that. It's a marine location and it's very windy, so we expected there to be quite a lot of PFAS from sea spray," says senior author Cora Young, an atmospheric chemist and Guy Warwick Rogers Chair in York University's Faculty of Science.
"We were quite surprised we didn't see anything that would indicate sea spray was contributing to PFAS in the area." Earlier international studies using mainly modeling and lab work had found sea spray to be a significant and direct source of forever chemicals. Lead author York Ph.D. student Daniel Persaud, Young and the team conducted fieldwork to understand the extent of the problem, expecting their results to support the earlier findings, but that is not what happened. The researchers collected and analyzed both wet- and dry-deposition samples from precipitation, such as rain, and dust that settled on the ground from particles and gases in the atmosphere at several locations up to 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the eastern coast.
The researchers focused on forested watersheds in the Newfoundland and Labrador Boreal Ecosystem Latitudinal Transect, which are all influenced by marine aerosols and were selected because of their proximity to the ocean. "Because the sites are windy and close to the ocean, we expected a strong marine-aerosol signal. Instead, the measured PFAS showed little association with sodium, which we used as a tracer of sea spray," says Persaud.
They did find PFAS at all study sites, but evidence pointed to the breakdown of PFAS precursor compounds in the atmosphere that would have been transported from elsewhere, rather than from sea spray. They mostly found perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), a subclass of PFAS, including perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluoroalkanesulfonic acids (PFSAs), which are not from local sources in Newfoundland. Instead, these PFAAs likely came from industrial and commercial centers elsewhere in Canada and the United States, and potentially even further afield.
PFAAs and their PFAS precursors are typically found in firefighting foams, nonstick materials and performance chemicals and can be transported long distances, including to the Arctic, raising environmental and bioaccumulation concerns. The researchers say their results are not necessarily exclusive to the east coast of Canada. Newfoundland offers a worst-case scenario in terms of driving wind, crashing waves and extensive coastline, exacerbating the amount of sea spray and creating the perfect storm for forever chemicals.
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