Occurrence of legacy and emerging halogenated organic contaminants in marine shellfish along French coasts

PBDE pattern was dominated by BDE-47, followed by BDE-99 > BDE-100 > BDE-49 > BDE-209 > BDE-154; these 6 congeners represented 94% of the summed ten PBDEs. PFC pattern determination revealed PFOS as the predominant PFC in samples from the English Channel and Atlantic, whereas perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) prevailed in Mediterranean samples. Temporal trend investigations on archived samples from the Mediterranean coast collected between 1981 and 2012 showed a prevalence of PFOS until 1998; PFCAs subsequently increased and became more abundant than PFOS. High levels of PFCAs were observed until 2008, followed by a decrease and stabilization in 2010-2012. Amongst PFCAs, perfluorotridecanoic acid (PFTrDA) and perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnA) were predominant and exhibited similar time trends, suggesting similar sources at the investigated site, home to major industrial activity.