Potential Impacts of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Contamination in Laboratory Materials and Model Organisms on Laboratory-based Studies

Abstract

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are persistent chemicals that present risks to human environmental health as a result of their ubiquitous nature. These compounds also impact laboratory based exposure and toxicology experiments through PFAS contamination in common materials used for aquatic laboratory exposure experiments. This thesis reviews literature surrounding PFAS bioaccumulation in aquatic organisms in laboratory exposure studies using several measures such as the bioaccumulation factor, bioconcentration factor, biomagnification factor, rate of uptake, and elimination rate. Lack of standardization in how the bioaccumulation factors were calculated creates challenges in statistical comparisons. This thesis also investigates potential PFAS contamination and impacts on aquatic laboratory based exposure experiments in habitat materials, fish feed, and aquaculture fish. Results suggest that PFAS contamination is present in common fish feed and can also be found in aquaculture fish. Unaccounted PFAS contamination in bioaccumulation and toxicity studies could confound results and ultimately influence environmental health recommendations.