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Assessing Chemical Exposure from Plastics Using High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry
Citation:
Sobus, J., E. Ulrich, S. Newton, A. Williams, A. Richard, C. Grulke, A. McEachran, J. Grossman, A. Chao, K. Phillips, K. Dionisio, AND K. Isaacs. Assessing Chemical Exposure from Plastics Using High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry. Presentation at the Program on Plastics, Ecosystems, and Public Health: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, May 13, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
The Program on Plastics, Ecosystems, and Public Health links experts from across Northwestern with collaborators from academic, civic, and industrial partner institutions. With expertise spanning engineering, materials science, chemistry, policy, public health, ecology, business, and more, Program network members are working together to deliver scalable solutions addressing the global use and accumulation of plastics.
Description:
Nearly every aspect of industrial society is affected by the existence and use of plastics. The vast production and ubiquity of plastics makes societal and economic benefits difficult to fathom. Yet, the complex chemistries of plastics, combined with uncertainties in product life cycle, make assessment of environmental health impacts equally difficult to comprehend. Concern exists over risks posed to aquatic and terrestrial species that are inadvertently exposed to plastics through unintended contact with various environmental media. Concern also exists for humans that are directly exposed to chemicals in plastics through intentional contact with manufactured materials. Fortunately, monitoring tools now exist that can detect plastic additives, monomers, and oligomers in various environmental and biological media. These tools, which are often based on high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), can detect and annotate individual compounds without the need for chemical standards or rigid target lists. This versatility allows for the simultaneous examination of compounds that are known to originate from plastics, as well as those not previously associated with specific manufactured products (and therefore not yet tested for safety). This presentation will describe the use of HRMS techniques to characterize known and unknown chemicals originating from plastics in a variety of media, including house dust, food, drinking water, and human biological samples. Focus will be given to tools developed at the US EPA that enable assessment of exposure to plastics via dietary and non-dietary ingestion.
URLs/Downloads:
https://isen.northwestern.edu/network-members-program-on-plastics-ecosystems-and-public-health