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Non-Targeted Analysis Ushering in a New Era for Environmental Health Protection: PFAS a Case-in-Point
Citation:
Buckley, T. Non-Targeted Analysis Ushering in a New Era for Environmental Health Protection: PFAS a Case-in-Point. APHA's 2019 Annual Meeting and Expo, Philadelphia, PA, November 02 - 06, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
To highlight the value and important on non-targeted methods of analysis for environmental health using PFAS technical support to states and regions as a case-in-point.
Description:
Environmental health protection is built on a technology-enabled tradition of evaluating exposure and hazard on a chemical-by-chemical basis. This results in a narrow view of chemical exposure, hazard, and risk. These circumstances favor the polluter and put public health in harm's way. A new era of environmental health is being ushered-in by measurement technology that has a much more expansive window onto exposure. Non-targeted analysis (NTA) relies on the combined technologies of high-resolution mass spectrometry, rapid computer analysis of analytical output, and accessible molecular chemistry databases. NTA has made it possible to observe and screen environmental media for thousands of chemical features. A more expansive assessment of chemical environmental occurrence establishes environmental relevance and the potential for exposure and begs questions of concentration, exposure, hazard, source attribution, and risk all of which require further study. We will discuss NTA as applied to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in response to state and regional concerns over environmental contamination and source attribution concerns. In discussing these applications, the value, relevance, and impact as well as limitations and challenges of NTA will be demonstrated.