Time trends between 1987 and 2007 for perfluoroalkyl acids in plasma from Swedish women

• We investigated time trends between 1987 and 2007 in perfluoroalkyl acids.
• PFDA, PFNA, and PFUnDA increased during the period, but most markedly after 2000.
• PFOS, PFOA, and PFHxS peaked during the period 1990–2000.

Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are a large group of chemicals which are highly persistent in both nature and humans. The use of the most prominent ones, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), was reduced in the early 21st century, and since then levels in human matrices have decreased. However, these two compounds have been exchanged by other PFAAs, for which time trends have not been as extensively investigated. By the use of 80 plasma samples collected between 1987 and 2007 from healthy women (n = 1–9 yearly for 1987–2001, n = 15 from 2006, and n = 10 from 2007), possible time trends of six PFAAs were assessed. Time trends were evaluated for the entire study period, as well as for three sub-periods. As seen in previous studies, levels of perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), PFOS, and PFOA peaked during the middle time period (1990–2000), with medians of 0.98 ng mL−1, 18.06 ng mL−1, and 3.73 ng mL−1, respectively. However, levels of perfluorononanic acid (PFNA), perfluorodecanic acid (PFDA), and perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA) increased over the whole study period and most markedly so after year 2000, with medians of 0.73 ng mL−1, 0.28 ng mL−1, and 0.24 ng mL−1, respectively, during the last study period.