PFAS in Snow: How much don’t we know? (Fluoroland)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of persistent organofluorine (OF) pollutants; many are known to be toxic and bioaccumulative. They can undergo long-range transport, posing a hazard to human and environmental health worldwide. A key question is: how much PFAS and OF pollutants are being deposited around the world that we don’t even know about? Currently about 20 compounds are routinely analysed, yet >10,000 compounds have been commercially produced. Studying PFAS on the remote Greenland ice sheet permits us to understand the background sources that enable global PFAS atmospheric deposition. By drilling and analysing two Greenland ice cores, we aim to reconstruct the historical deposition of PFAS and evaluate if current international regulation is sufficient. We will employ an additional and novel analytical method which will allow us to see beyond those routinely analysed PFAS and identify all OF pollutants – creating data of urgent value to regulators.