Science Inventory

Laying a foundation for NTA at EPA: Expanding adoption, utility, and confidence

Citation:

Ulrich, E. Laying a foundation for NTA at EPA: Expanding adoption, utility, and confidence. Horizon Scanning, Virtual, NC, April 30 - May 07, 2024. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.26015368

Impact/Purpose:

The Office of Research and Development continues to lay and build upon the foundation of NTA research in areas such as data processing, analytical method databases and models, chemical space coverage, matrix occurrence models, and quantitative NTA to better allow for use of NTA methods and data in decision making contexts and identification of new environmental concerns.

Description:

The US EPA uses exposure and toxicity information and risk assessments to protect human health and the environment from known hazards. However, some of the chemicals we are exposed to are unknown, undetected, and unregulated. Discovering the identity of unknown chemicals with mass spectrometry is not new. The process has improved with recent technological advances in high-resolution mass spectrometry and other analytical instrumentation, data and statistical analysis techniques, models, prioritization schemes, and open-source databases to enable higher throughput non-targeted analysis (NTA). Identifying substances not captured in chemical databases, mass spectral libraries, or by predictive models remains challenging, although the potential for NTA covers a wide range of EPA applications (e.g., rapid/emergency response, drinking water contaminant candidate listing (CCL), Superfund site characterization, TSCA prioritization, source apportionment, PFAS research). Real-time NTA monitoring at drinking water intakes can minimize exposures by detecting new chemical signals, tracking down their sources, and eliminating inputs. EPA has screened consumer products, environmental (e.g., house dust, point -of-use drinking water filters), and biological (e.g., placenta, blood) matrices using NTA methods to characterize exposures. The Office of Research and Development continues to lay and build upon the foundation of NTA research in areas such as data processing, analytical method databases and models, chemical space coverage, matrix occurrence models, and quantitative NTA to better allow for use of NTA methods and data in decision making contexts and identification of new environmental concerns. This abstract does not necessarily reflect agency policy.