Can nail, hair and urine be used for biomonitoring of human exposure to perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid?

Because of the disadvantages of invasive sampling, it is desirable to explore non-invasive matrices for human biomonitoring of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The aim of this study was to evaluate the application of nail, hair and urine for human biomonitoring of PFOS and PFOA. The concentrations of PFOS and PFOA in matched nail, hair, urine and serum samples collected from 64 donors were measured. The chemicals of interest were detected with high detection frequency in these matrices (90%–100%) except for PFOA in urine samples (56%). Generally, the gender influences on the levels of PFOS and PFOA in these non-invasive matrices were in agreement with that in serum. For PFOS, the coefficients of Spearman correlation between serum samples and nail, hair and urine samples were 0.786 (p < 0.001), 0.545 (p < 0.001) and 0.302 (p < 0.05), respectively. For PFOA, the correlation was only observed between nail samples and serum samples with a correlation coefficient of 0.299 (p < 0.05). The results suggested that nail has more potential than hair and urine to be applied in human biomonitoring for PFOS and PFOA in general populations.

► The occurrences of PFOS and PFOA in nail, hair and urine from human were observed and characterized.
► The similar gender effects and correlation on PFASs levels between nail, hair, urine and serum were found.
► Our results suggested that nail has more potential than hair and urine to be applied in human biomonitoring for PFASs.