Per- and polyfluorinated compounds in house dust and indoor air from northern Norway - a pilot study

Polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are an extremely versatile class of compounds and are used in a variety of consumer applications and products. Recent studies have suggested that PFCs in indoor air and dust could act as sources of human exposure and outdoor air contamination. This study presents method development and analysis of a wide range of PFCs in dust and air using active sampling techniques with commercially available sampling equipment (forensic nozzles with filter housings for dust collection and polyurethane foam (PUF)-XAD₂-PUF sandwich-tubes for air sampling) using both liquid and gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The developed method was validated and tested for applicability to analyze dust and air samples at both low and high concentrations (0.5 ng and 25 ng per analyte per air sample, respectively). Samples from private households and an office building were analyzed to explore differences in distribution patterns and concentrations. Perfluorooctane sulfonate, perfluorodecane sulfonate, perfluoroheptanoate, perfluorooctanoate and perfluorononanoate were observed in all samples of dust from private households, in the range from 1 to 80.1 ng g⁻¹. Fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs) were the predominant PFCs in indoor air samples with ∑FTOHs ranging between 4.7 and 17.9 ng m⁻³. The concentrations found in the present study are generally lower than those previously reported. This variation may be due to differences associated with geographical locations and lifestyles. However, use of different sampling techniques and strategies among studies can introduce large variations in PFC concentration found, making direct comparisons challenging.