DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14027087
title: Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Concentrations in the Upper Danube Catchment: Integrated Dataset from H2020 Project PROMISCES - Case Study 2

description: Dataset Description

This dataset was produced within the framework of Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Project PROMISCES (Preventing Recalcitrant Organic Mobile Industrial chemicalS for Circular Economy in the Soil-sediment-water system). Project website: https://promisces.eu/

The dataset contains information on the environmental concentrations of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) collected as part of the PROMISCES project's Case Study #2, Subtask 2.2.4 – Large catchment scale monitoring in different environmental compartments. It also includes data gathered from various external sources.

Abstract

PFASs are a group of synthetic chemicals widely used in various household and industrial applications (Glüge et al., 2020). Due to their high chemical stability, PFASs are resistant to natural degradation processes, leading to their accumulation in different environmental matrices and ultimately posing potential health risks to humans (Sunderland et al., 2019). PROMISCES CS#2 focused on understading the fate and transport of PFASs in the upper Danube catchment, covering the Danube from its source to the city of Budapest. Over approximately 1.5 years, a comprehensive monitoring campaign was conducted in this study area, across multiple environmental compartments: 



Atmopsheric Deposition: 

River water: including Danube mainstream and its tributaries.

Groundwater: including bank-filtered water from the Danube, and groundwater directly influenced by the landfills

Landfill leachate

Surface Runoff

Wastewater: Influent and effluent from municipal waterwater treatment plants (WWTPs) and direct industrial dischargers


Particularly, the case study placed a special focus on the Danube and its bank filtration sites at two major cities in the Upper Danube, Vienna and Budapest.

The dataset primarily consists results from targeted analysis of 32 individual PFAS substances. In addition, available data for these 32 PFASs in the study area were collected from various online resources or provided directly by project partners. For confidentiality reasons, some external data have been anonymized on names and locations. 

Partial of this dataset have already contributed to a 2023 publication (Liu et al.), which was based on preliminary data before the completion of the full monitoring campaign and external data collection.

The full dataset was analysed and discussed in the publication Liu et al. (2025): https://www.doi.org/10.1186/s12302-025-01141-6

Technical Details

This dataset includes:



A Zip file containing .accdb Microsoft Access database

A ZIP file containing .csv files structured to match the database


Notice that the .accdb version is out of maintance and removed in version 3.0. The only changes compared to version 2.0 was the substance short-names for two compounds:



substance with CAS number 2355-31-9 updated from “MeFOSAA” to “N-MeFOSAA”

substance with CAS number 2991-50-6 updated from “EtFOSAA” to “N-EtFOSAA


Database structure

One query is created to show most important information:



Concentrations_PFAS: contains all PFAS concentration data. 


In addition, tables were provided with more infomation on the metadata:



Table1_measurements: concentrations data with units, values, limit of quantifications (LOQs); keys indicating relationships with other tables.

Table2_samplings: sample codes, sampling times (if available), sampling type, sampling techniques; key indicating relationships with Table7_analytical_methods.

Table3_samples: sample names, sample sites, coordinates and coordinate systems (if available).

Table4_compartments: sample matrices/compartments, more detailed sample types.

Table5_compounds: CAS numbers, substance short names, Sus Dat IDs, substance names in NORMAN database, substance group short names and long names.

Table6_datasources: data source names, organisations, countries, references, links.

Table7_analytical_methods: laboratories, preparation methods, analytical methods, analytical method standards.


References

Glüge, J., Scheringer M., Cousins I., DeWitt J., Goldenman G., Herzke D., Lohmann R., Ng A., Trier X., Wang Z (2020) An Overview of the Uses of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts 12. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EM00291G

Liu, M., Saracevic, E., Kittlaus, S., Oudega, T., Obeid, A., Nagy-Kovács, Z., László, B., Krlovic, N., Saracevic, Z., Lindner, G., Rab, R., Derx, J., Zoboli, O., Zessner, M. (2023) PFAS-Belastungen im Einzugsgebiet der oberen Donau. Österr Wasser- und Abfallw 75, 503–514 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s00506-023-00973-x 

Sunderland, Elsie M., Xindi C. Hu, Clifton Dassuncao, Andrea K. Tokranov, Charlotte C. Wagner, and Joseph G. Allen. (2019) A Review of the Pathways of Human Exposure to Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) and Present Understanding of Health Effects. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology 29, no. 2 : 131–47. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-018-0094-1