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Ecotoxicity of single and mixture of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFOS and PFOA) in soils to the earthworm Aporrectodea caliginosa
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Researchers assessed the ecotoxicity of PFOS and PFOA — two common PFAS "forever chemicals" — on earthworms in European soils, finding significant harm to survival, growth, and DNA integrity at concentrations as low as 0.3 mg/kg, with additive toxic effects when the chemicals were combined.
Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent compounds that are massively used in industry, consumer goods and fire-fighting foams. Soil contamination by PFAS is a major environmental concern, and there is a lack of knowledge on both their ecotoxicological mechanisms and the concentrations that induce adverse effects especially to non-target organisms, particularly in the case of PFAS mixtures. This study contributes to filling these gaps by assessing and modelling the effects of PFAS (in single and in mixtures for PFOS and PFOA at different environmental doses) on juvenile endogeic earthworms of a common species in European soils (Aporrectodea caliginosa) at different levels of biological organization (sub-individual and individual). The results showed for the first time combined strong ecotoxicological effects of PFAS on earthworm survival, integumental integrity, growth, sexual maturity and on genomic stability notably with the induction of DNA breaks associated with no abnormal oxidative DNA-lesion levels. Our results demonstrated significant effects at 0.3 mg kg−1 and additive effects in case of mixtures.
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Researchers conducted the first ecotoxicological study of cC6O4—a PFOA substitute used in fluoropolymer production—on earthworms, finding it caused no significant mortality but impaired reproduction at an EC50 of 10.4 mg/kg soil, with negligible bioaccumulation compared to legacy PFAS compounds.
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Researchers found that fluoroalkyl sulfonamide-based PFAS copolymers are absorbed by earthworms and metabolized into lower-molecular-weight PFAS compounds, with field data showing significantly elevated PFAS levels in earthworms living in sludge-amended soils, suggesting sewage sludge application is a meaningful environmental pathway for polymeric PFAS contamination.
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