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Developing Non-Targeted Measurement Methods to Characterize the Human Exposome
Citation:
Sobus, J., J. Rager, AND M. Strynar. Developing Non-Targeted Measurement Methods to Characterize the Human Exposome. 2015 Assn of Public Health Laboratories, Indianapolis, IN, May 18 - 21, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
The exposome represents all exposures experienced by an individual during their lifetime. Registered chemicals currently number in the tens-of-thousands, and therefore comprise a significant portion of the human exposome. To date, quantitative monitoring methods have been developed for only a small fraction of registered chemicals. Novel approaches are thereforeneeded to efficiently characterize thousands of additional analytes in both environmental andbiological samples. This presentation will introduce a non-targeted screening method, based on liquid chromatography (LC) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry, for examining environmental chemicals in samples of house dust. It will also discuss strategies for informingand prioritizing results from non-targeted screens using exposure and toxicity forecasts. The methods discussed are applicable to numerous environmental and biological media, and should be considered in future exposure assessments to more fully characterize the human exposome.
