Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Hazardous Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhazmat Ecological risk assessment for perfluorooctanoic acid in soil using a species sensitivity approach Jin Il Kwak, Tae-Yang Lee, Hyomin Seo, Dokyung Kim, Dasom Kim, Rongxue Cui, Youn-Joo An ⁎ Department of Environmental Health Science, Konkuk University, Seoul, 05029, South Korea GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT ARTICLE INFO Editor: Daniel CW Tsang Keywords: Perfluorooctanoic acid Soil Ecological risk assessment Species sensitivity distribution ABSTRACT Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is one of the persistent organic pollutants that has been listed in Annex A of the Stockholm Convention and has attracted attention owing to its endocrine-disrupting properties. However, there is currently little information available regarding the soil ecotoxicity of PFOA and the associated ecological risks. Accordingly, in this study, we sought to assess the soil ecological risk of PFOA based on a probabilistic approach using data obtained from multispecies bioassays and soil toxicity assessments, from which we generated soil species sensitivity distributions and estimated soil protective concentrations for PFOA. Using the latter dis- tributions, we also undertook a probabilistic ecological risk assessment. On the basis of acute and chronic toxicity estimates obtained from bioassays involving eight soil-associated organisms from six diverse taxonomic groups, we could deduce that PFOA poses a negligible risk to soil ecosystems. However, we also found that this chemical may be more toxic than some of the established endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as bisphenol A, nonylphenol, and methylparaben, thereby indicating that further in-depth studies would be necessary to obtain a better understanding of the toxic potential of this chemical in the soil environment. 1. Introduction Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is an artificial perfluoroalkyl sub- stance (PFAS) (USEPA, 2017) containing eight perfluoroalkyl carbons (OECD, 2013), which is used extensively in the manufacture of consumer products worldwide (USEPA, 2017), including non-stick kitchenware, surface treatment agents, and surfactants (UNEP, 2019). However, evidence suggests that PFOA is a persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substance (ECHA, 2013). According to the hazard classifica- tion and labeling by the European Union (EU), “PFOA may damage the https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121150 Received 27 March 2019; Received in revised form 15 August 2019; Accepted 3 September 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: anyjoo@konkuk.ac.kr (Y.-J. An). Journal of Hazardous Materials 382 (2020) 121150 Available online 04 September 2019 0304-3894/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T