Occurrence of Surface Active Agents in the Environment

Table 4

The levels of different classes of surfactants in solid and liquid environmental samples (prepared on data published in [1, 3, 117–119] and laboratory testes).

Type of analytes		Type/source of sample	Range of concentration
Soils (μg/kg)
Anionic	LAS, SPC, PFOA, PFOS	Forest area	3.28–50000
	Total	Soil surface	330 ± 170^a
Nonionic	AEO	Urban area	69–329
	NPEO, OPEO, NP, OP	Forest area	87–500
	OPEO, NP, OP	Agricultural area	200–229000
Dusts (μg/kg)
Anionic	LAS	Indoor dust (public buildings)	0.5–1500000
		Street dust	5.0–7.7
Sediments (mg/kg)
Cationic	Total	River, marine sediment	5–50
	DDAC, BAC, ATAC, DTDMAC		n.d–42300
Anionic	LAS, AES, AS TPS, PFOA, PFOS	Lake, river, and marine sediment	0.0002–3.4
	PFOA, PFOS	Wetland	n.d.–0.0307
Nonionic	NPE, NP, OP, NPEO, OPEO, AEO, NPEC	River, lake, and marine sediment	<MDL–1170
Sewage sludge (mg/kg)
Cationic	DTDMAC, DHTDMAC	Germany, Switzerland	150–5870
Anionic	LAS, CDEA, SAS, AES, AS, PFOA, PFOS	Germany, Spain, and Switzerland	n.d.–7510
Nonionic	NPEO, AE, NPEC, NP, OP, PEG	USA, Canada, Germany, and Spain	n.d.–601
Sludge (mg/kg)
Cationic	DDAC, BAC, ATAC	Austria	n.d.–3.6
Anionic	PFOA, PFOS	China, USA	n.d.–7.3
Nonionic	NPEO, OPEO, AE, NPEC, NP	France, Spain, and USA	n.d.–654
Atmospheric waters (μg/L)
Cationic	Total	Atmospheric water	1.0–11.7^b
		Aerosols	26.1–129.6^b
Anionic	Total	Aerosols	14.9–229.1^b
		Atmospheric water, and cloud water	n.d.–932.2^b
	PFOA, PFOS	Rain, snow, and street runoff	0.0001–0.182
Nonionic	NP	Rain, snow	n.d.–0.95
Cationic	Total	Dew (urban/rural area)	270/230^c
		Hoarfrost (urban/rural area)	280/240^c
Anionic	Total	Dew (urban/rural area)	320/300^c
		Hoarfrost (urban/rural area)	440/280^c
Nonionic	Total	Dew (urban/rural area)	770/740^c
		Hoarfrost (urban/rural area)	990/830^c
Ground/well/mineral water (μg/L) (for PFOA and PFOS—(ng/L))
Cationic	Total	Ground water	500–1300
Anionic	DATS, PFOA, PFOS	Ground, raw, and tap water	n.d.–133
	Total	Tap, mineral, and well water	20–193
Nonionic	NPEO, OPEO, NPEC, OPEC, NP, OP	Ground, tap, raw water	n.d.–100
Surface water (μg/L) (for PFOA and PFOS—(ng/L))
Cationic	Total	Sea water	11–210^d
	DTDMAC, DEEDMAC, DEQ, BAC, DTMABr, DDABr, DBDMAC, ATAC, DDAC	Surface, river, and sea water	n.d.–75
Anionic	Total	River water, and sea water	5–150 (5–360^e)
	LAS, AES, AS, SPC, DATS, PFOA, PFOS	River, lake, and sea water	n.d.–2210000
Nonionic	Total	River water	27–222
	NPEO, OPEO, C12–16EO, NPEC, OPEC, NP, OP	River water, lake water	n.d.–14
Wastewaters (μg/L)
Cationic	Total	China	374–2116
	DDAC, BAC, ATAC, CTAB	Austria, Algeria, Spain, and USA	n.d.–49
Anionic	Total	Canada	120–9340
	LAS, PFOA, PFOS	Germany, Austria, Spain, Japan, and China	0.0087–1630
Nonionic	Sum	China	374–2116
	NPEO, OPEO, C12–16EO, NP, OP, PEG, NPEC, OPEC	USA, Spain, France, Austria, Italy, Canada, Russia, and Japan	n.d.–2340
Sewage (μg/L)
Cationic	DTDMAC, DEEDMAC; DEQ	Germany	n.d.–140
Anionic	LAS, DATS	Italy	0.52–2360
Nonionic	NPEO, NP		0.3–208

a(μM/kg); ^b(pmol/m³); ^cmean value; ^d(μmol/L); ^e(pmol/L).