Perfluorooctane sulfonate(PFOS)and related fluorochemicals in chicken egg in China
The ubiquitous occurrence of perfluorinated compounds(PFCs)in environmental samples has drawn
much attention.Recent human exposure studies found relatively high periluorooctane sulfonate(PFOSl
concentrations in blood samples from several cities in China when com pared with other countries.The
objectives of the present study were:(I1)to measure PFC concentrations and compositions in chicken
egg samples from local markets in China;and(2)to conduct a preliminary human health risk assessment
of egg consumption.Eight pooled egg sam ples from eight locations were analyzed for 1 1 PFCs.
The results showed that close to 100% of the PFOS in the egg was distributed in egg yolk and PFOS
was not detected in egg white(<0.08 ng/g wet weight, .Of the perfluoroalkylsulfonates,only PFOS
was detected in all egg sam ples,while of the periluoroalkylcarboxylates,perfluoroundecanoic acid
(PFUnDA)was detected in all samples,followed by perfluorooctanoate(PFOA)(75% occurrence)and
perfluorodecanoic acid(PFDA)(50% occurrence).PFOS concentrations in egg ranged from 45.0 to 86.9
ng/g w/w.The results suggested that current concentrations of PFOS in domestic chicken eggs are
unlikely to cause im mediate harm to Chinese populations.