Analysis of Food Contact Papers and Fabrics Containing PFAS

Science Center, Bent Corridor

Due to their known toxicity, persistence and ubiquity in our environment per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are compounds of emerging concern. These compounds are used in a variety of consumer and industrial products because of their unique hydrophobic and oleophobic properties. However several compounds in the PFAS family, like Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), have known health effects at relativity low concentrations. Monitoring these compounds however, is difficult because traditional detection methods, such as LC-MS/MS and GC-MS, are time-consuming, insensitive to some PFAS and often lead to the destruction of the sample. Particle-Induced Gamma-ray Emission (PIGE) spectroscopy is a rapid and non-destructive, quantitative measurement of total fluorine. PIGE employs an accelerated proton beam to excite target nuclei. As the excited nuclei decay back to their ground states, characteristic gamma rays are released. These gamma rays can be detected and used in the quantification of 19F present in the surface of any solid sample. Because PIGE is a rapid and non-destructive technique, it represents a potential pre-screening technique for sample analyses. Since it is an elemental analysis technique it is non-specific in the detection of PFAS and rather detects total fluorine content. In this way, even PFAS that escape detection by traditional LC-MS/MS techniques can be measured by PIGE. This poster presents a survey of fast food wrappers and sampling equipment for PFAS as well as a PFOA calibration curve for paper and a PFOA calibration curve for fabrics.