Extraction of 40 PFAS Compounds from Soil and Tissue Following EPA Method 1633

Introduction

There are currently thousands of PFAS compounds that have been used extensively across many industries. Due to their exceptional durability and bioaccumulation, they have earned the moniker of forever compounds. PFAS possess a chain of linked carbon atoms with fluorine atoms branching off of the main chain. The presence of the strong carbon-fluorine bond contributes to the stability of these compounds. Due to their ubiquity, PFAS have leached into the environment through production and waste streams, making their way into water sources. From these water sources, PFAS can rapidly spread, contaminating soil and biological tissue. Furthermore, these compounds have been found to bioaccumulate in animals and humans, and exposure in humans has been shown to cause adverse health outcomes. Thus, the assessment of the levels of PFAS in the environment is important to the health and safety of humans.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have provided EPA Method 1633 for analysis of PFAS, including soil and tissue sample types. The extraction method for the solid samples detailed in this method is a long manual process. Since the method is performance-based, the extraction can be modified as long as quality control requirements are met. The EDGE PFAS system can be used to extract both the soil and tissue samples in less than 10 minutes, automating the solvent addition, extraction, and filtering of the extract. This allows for a rapid, efficient, and simple extraction of PFAS from these solid environmental samples.

In this work, the EDGE PFAS was utilized to effectively extract PFAS from soil and tissue samples with acceptable recoveries and RSD values. Animal tissues are difficult matrices to extract and add complexity to both the sample preparation and the analysis. With the EDGE PFAS system, one simple method can be applied to many different difficult sample types.