Pesticides can be a substantial source of trifluoroacetate (TFA) to water resources
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per year. Therein, some PPP are only used for specific crops in specific regions, while others are used more widely. The importance of PPP as a TFA source is supported by the field data from a region in Germany, which revealed a significant increase in TFA groundwater concentrations with agriculture compared to other land uses. Substance-specific TFA formation rates and field studies are necessary to characterize the formation of TFA from precursors under environmental conditions and to rank and prioritize PPP of concern for potential (regulatory) action.
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Given no PFAS manufacturing in Serbia, plausible contributors to elevated TFA include emissions from industrial and pharmaceutical uses, agricultural application of C-CF3-containing plant protection products, and secondary atmospheric formation through degradation of volatile fluorinated precursors and refrigerant gases.
“Given that there is no PFAS manufacturing in Serbia, plausible contributors include emissions from industrial and pharmaceutical uses, agricultural application of C–CF3-containing plant protection products, and secondary atmospheric formation through degradation of volatile fluorinated precursors and refrigerant gases [39,40,41].”
From Integrated Targeted and Suspect Screening Workflow for Identifying PFAS of Concern in Urban-Impacted Serbian Rivers (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
The Implications section (p. 7) identifies agricultural application of C–CF3-containing plant protection products as a source of TFA, and the introduction (p. 2) identifies industrial sites and atmospheric photooxidation of fluorinated refrigerants as other possible sources. The paper does not establish that these sources explain elevated TFA in Serbia, and our copy does not identify pharmaceutical uses as a TFA source. The statement about PFAS manufacturing in Serbia appears to be the citing authors’ framing, not a finding attributed to this paper. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredFluometuron contains a -CF3 moiety and has been identified as a potential precursor of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA).
“Fluometuron contains a -CF 3 moiety and it has been identified as a potential precursor of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA).”
From Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Surface Water and Fluvial Sediments of a Rural Gulf Coast Watershed: A Year-long Spatiotemporal Assessment (2026) · cites this paper as [53]
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“…transformation rates to derive potential TFA contributions from PPPs for European countries and the contiguous USA (German Environment Agency, 2023; Joerss et al., 2024) Although TFA formation from some PPP has been proven in theory, it remains unknown if agricultural TFA plays a notable role in a…”
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“Comparable theoretical TFA loads from C–CF 3 pesticides have been reported for many regions of Europe and the United States (Joerss et al., 2024).”
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Identification and quantification of PFAS in the tap water of a French City, Besançon
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“Potential sources include biotransformation and degradation of longer-chain PFAS side chains and other fluorinated compounds (e.g., the widely used inhalational anesthetic isoflurane) [69,70], which complicates separation of direct environmental exposure from metabolic production.”
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“…2021b), existing contaminated soil sources, landfill gas and uncontrolled leachate (De la Cruz et al. 2025), stormwater runoff (Kali et al. 2025), nonpoint use of PFAS in pesticides (Joerss et al. 2024), refrigerants (Arp et al. 2024), building materials, industrial products, and consumer products.”
Trifluoroacetic Acid (TFA) in the Environment: Occurrence, Persistence, and Treatment
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PFAS Pesticides: Contamination Pathways in Italy and the Need for Integrated Regulation
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- Authors
- Joerss, H., Freeling, F., van Leeuwen, S., Hollender, J., Liu, X., Nödler, K., Wang, Z., Yu, B., Zahn, D., & Sigmund, G.
- Affiliations
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon (DE)
- DVGW - Technologiezentrum Wasser (DE)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Institute of Plant Protection (CN)
- Empa (CH)
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (DE)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Joerss, Hanna
- Sigmund, Gabriel
- ORCID
- Venue
- Environment International
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2024-11
- Volume
- 193
- Pages
- 109061
- ISSN
- 0160-4120 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4403282870
- Cited by
- 107
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 76 · 2025: 31
- FWCI
- 13.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2024-12-01)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Environment International (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DORA Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag)) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DORA Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- ETH Zürich Research Collection
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (32261133527)
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research Bonn Office (02WGW1720)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Pesticide and Herbicide Environmental Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts
- Keywords
- trifluoroacetate, pesticides, groundwater contamination, water resources, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS precursors, agricultural land use, environmental fate
- MeSH terms
- Agriculture, China, Environmental Monitoring, Europe, Pesticides, Trifluoroacetic Acid, United States, Water Pollutants, Chemical, Groundwater, Water Resources
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