Extended Data Table 3 Threshold percent based on cumulative distribution of surface and groundwater samples from an unknown or known AFFF or non-AFFF source that exceeds a given PFAS concentration

From: Underestimated burden of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in global surface waters and groundwaters

  1. Threshold percent based on cumulative distribution of surface and groundwater samples from an unknown or known AFFF or non-AFFF source that exceeds a given PFAS concentration. For samples where PFAS concentrations were below detection limits (BDL), a PFAS concentration was set to zero or a random value between zero and the detection limit. n represents the number of samples. For both SW and GW samples with no known PFAS source, the incidence of threshold exceedance changed little (< 1.3% for all criteria). For samples with a known source, the incidence of threshold exceedance decreased, with the greatest decrease for groundwater with an AFFF source using Health Canada’s 30 ng/L sum of all PFAS criteria (from 89% to 63%).