Major Goals and Objectives

Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) blood serum will be tested for PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Each sample will be analyzed three times, once for ionic PFAS, once for neutral PFAS, and once for oxidizable precursors. These analyses will achieve the research goals of determining:

1. What concentration of ionic and neutral PFAS are in bald eagle samples?
2. How do oxidizable precursors affect the concentration of ionic PFAS in the samples?
3. What does the “big picture” indicate about the health of the bald eagles and the surrounding ecosystem?
4. What does this “big picture” suggest about environmental and human health?

This will give previously unavailable insights into the amount of PFAS and PFAS precursors in bald eagles and their surrounding aquatic ecosystems. These concentrations, which will give us an estimate of the PFAS contamination in bald eagles, will be compared with known thresholds of toxicological effects for the bald eagles, which in turn will give us an indirect assessment of the surrounding environment.