Occurrence and Distribution of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate and Perfluorooctanoic Acid in the Rivers of Tokyo

Comprehensive survey of major rivers in the Tokyo metropolitan area was conducted for clarifying the emission sources of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in Tokyo. PFOS was found at all sampling sites at concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 58 ng L(-1); in addition to this, it was also indicated that unknown PFOS emission sources are present in the midstream of the Tama River basin. The relationship between PFOS and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was constant at a ratio of 10:3 (PFOS/PFOA) throughout the Tama River basin. The sum of daily load amounts of PFOS from Tokyo's major rivers to Tokyo Bay reached 215 g day(-1). This value corresponds to 12.8 mu g day(-1) per person using the sum of wastewater treatment district populations. In contrast, an estimation of PFOS contribution of domestic wastewater was also attempted, and the contribution was 1.6 mu g day(-1) per person. We took samples up trunk sewers in the Tama River and finally found at the highest PFOS concentration (58,000 ng L(-1)) from one of the wastewater of the electronic parts manufacturing facilities.