title: Levels and fate of perfluoroalkyl substances in beached plastic pellets and sediments collected from Greece.
abstract: Plastic debris damages marine wildlife and ecosystems becoming an important source of marine pollution. In addition, they can sorb, concentrate and stabilise contaminants acting as toxic carriers to the marine food web. In this context, the presence of 18 perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in plastic pellets (n=5) and beach sediment (n=9) samples widely distributed around Greek coastal areas was assessed. The results, mainly, showed the sorption of PFASs onto pellet surface from surrounding water with concentrations from method limit of quantification to 115 ng/kg for C5, C7, C8 and C10 carboxylic acids and C8 sulfonate acid. A similar pattern was found by comparing plastic pellets and sediment for the same sampling locations that could indicate a common origin of contamination in both types of samples. However, since the number of analysed samples is limited, a more comprehensive study with a higher number of samples should be performed in future research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Chemistry, IDAEA-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Llorca
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Chemistry, IDAEA-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: mfuqam@cid.csic.es.
authors.forename: Marinella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farré
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
authors.forename: Hrissi K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Karapanagioti
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Chemistry, IDAEA-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: Damià
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barceló
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D006115:Greece; D006845:Hydrocarbons, Fluorinated / Q000737:chemistry*; D010969:Plastics / Q000032:analysis; D014866:Waste Products; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D006845:Hydrocarbons, Fluorinated; D010969:Plastics; D014866:Waste Products; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Beach sediments; Perfluoroalkyl substances; Plastic pellets