Identifying Populations with Elevated PFAS Exposure by Targeted Serum Sample Pooling

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Toxicology
• Biomonitoring

Background:

• Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are globally monitored due to health concerns.
• Australia has established biomonitoring of PFAS since 2002 using pooled serum.
• Human exposure levels near known PFAS contamination sites remain largely unassessed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of geographical pooling of surplus pathology samples for detecting elevated PFAS exposure.
• To assess human exposure in populations residing near identified PFAS hotspots in Australia.

Main Methods:

• Collected and geographically pooled de-identified surplus pathology serum samples (n > 1800) from postcodes near three PFAS hotspots.
• Analyzed pooled samples for PFAS concentrations.
• Compared results with existing Australian Human Biomonitoring (HBM) project data.

Main Results:

• PFAS concentrations were significantly higher in samples from two of the three assessed hotspots compared to the Australian HBM project.
• This indicates potential elevated population exposure to PFAS in these specific communities.
• Targeted serum pooling proved effective in identifying exposure indications.

Conclusions:

• Geographical pooling of surplus pathology samples is a viable tool for identifying elevated population exposure to persistent chemicals.
• This method can facilitate rapid surveillance and investigation of communities near contamination sites.
• The approach offers a cost-effective strategy for environmental health monitoring.