Abstract
Chemical contaminants are widely dispersed in the environment in all its dimensions, posing significant public health problems. Comprehensive knowledge of these stressors is a prerequisite for assessing the associated risk and implementing public policy measures to reduce the level of population exposure. Nontargeted suspect screening approaches broaden the knowledge of the chemical human exposome. We developed and used a suspect screening method based on large spectral libraries. Chemical profiling was based on a combined LC– and GC–HRMS approach. The methodology was applied to 16 samples spanning the environment, food, and health continuum. Using a combination of matching and scoring data, a total of 547 compounds were likely identified, from which the chemical structure of 63 molecules was confirmed to the highest level of certainty. Wastewater, and more generally environmental samples, had the highest number of chemicals detected, while fish samples had a lower number. Pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and personal care product-related compounds were found to be the most common compounds in and between the extracts, particularly in water and serum samples. Many natural and endogenous compounds were consistently annotated in the samples submitted for analysis, regardless of the compartment investigated.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 21265-21277 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Environmental Science and Technology |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 39 |
| Early online date | 28 Sept 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 7 Oct 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society
Funding
The authors thank all the laboratories and staff involved in sample collection and extraction. We are indebted to colleagues that sampled water and enriched it on SPE cartridges: Nadine Sossalla and Martin Wagner, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Pavel Saur, University of South Bohemia in České; Daniel Obrich and Nadine Bramaz, Swiss Centre for Ecotoxicology; Maria José Farré, ICRA; Teresa Lettieri and Livia Gomez Cortes, JRC Ispra; Warich Leekitratanapisan, Ghent University, Julien Le Roux, LEESU, University Paris-Est Créteil. We are also indebted to colleagues who sent cow’s milk, breastmilk, and fish samples: Kostja Renko, Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung; Matteo Puimatti, Altertox; Marzia Pezzolato, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte; Maykel Hernández Mesa, Universidad de Granada; Fernando Ramos, Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Coimbra. We want to particularly acknowledge the patients and the IBSP-CV Biobank integrated in the Spanish National Biobanks Network and in the Valencian Biobanking Network for its collaboration; Maria João Valente, Technical University of Denmark for helping with Danish serum samples; and Leisa-Marie Toms, Queensland University of Technology for providing the Australian blood samples. This research was funded, in whole or in part, by the European Commission, Grant 101036631. A CC-BY public copyright license has been applied by the authors to the present document and will be applied to all subsequent versions up to the Author Accepted Manuscript arising from this submission, in accordance with the grant’s open access conditions. This work is part of the PANORAMIX project, funded by the European’s project HORIZON 2020 and the Green deal under the grant agreement no 101036631. The authors thank all the laboratories and staff involved in sample collection and extraction. We are indebted to colleagues that sampled water and enriched it on SPE cartridges: Nadine Sossalla and Martin Wagner, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Pavel Saur, University of South Bohemia in České; Daniel Obrich and Nadine Bramaz, Swiss Centre for Ecotoxicology; Maria José Farré, ICRA; Teresa Lettieri and Livia Gomez Cortes, JRC Ispra; Warich Leekitratanapisan, Ghent University, Julien Le Roux, LEESU, University Paris-Est Créteil. We are also indebted to colleagues who sent cow’s milk, breastmilk, and fish samples: Kostja Renko, Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung; Matteo Puimatti, Altertox; Marzia Pezzolato, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte; Maykel Hernández Mesa, Universidad de Granada; Fernando Ramos, Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Coimbra. We want to particularly acknowledge the patients and the IBSP-CV Biobank integrated in the Spanish National Biobanks Network and in the Valencian Biobanking Network for its collaboration; Maria João Valente, Technical University of Denmark for helping with Danish serum samples; and Leisa-Marie Toms, Queensland University of Technology for providing the Australian blood samples. This research was funded, in whole or in part, by the European Commission, Grant 101036631. A CC-BY public copyright license has been applied by the authors to the present document and will be applied to all subsequent versions up to the Author Accepted Manuscript arising from this submission, in accordance with the grant’s open access conditions. This work is part of the PANORAMIX project, funded by the European’s project HORIZON 2020 and the Green deal under the grant agreement no 101036631.
Keywords
- classes of use
- common compounds
- environment−food−human continuum
- suspect screening