Suspect Screening and Regulatory Databases: A Powerful Combination To Identify Emerging Micropollutants

Abstract

This study demonstrates that regulatory databases combined with the latest advances in high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) can be efficiently used to prioritize and identity new. potentially hazardous pollutants being discharged into the aquatic environment. Of the approximately 23000 chemicals registered in the database of the National Swedish Product Register, 160 potential organic micropollutants were prioiitized through quantitative knowledge ot market availability, quantity used, extent of use on the market, and predicted compartment-specific environmental exposure during usage. Advanced liquid chromatography (LC)-HRMS-based suspect screening strategies were used to search tor the selected compounds in 24 h composite samples collected from the effluent of three major wastewater treatment plants (VYWTPs) in Sweden. In total, 36 tentative identifications were successfully achieved, mostly for substances not previously considered by environmental scientists. Of these substances, 23 were further confirmed with reference standards, showing the efiiciencv of combining a systematic prioritization strategy based on a regulatory database and a suspect-screening approach. These findings show that close collaboration between scientists and regulatory authorities is a promising way forward for enhancing identification rates of emerging pollutants and expanding knowledge on the occurrence of potentially hazardous substances in the environment.

Published in

Environmental Science and Technology
2018, volume: 52, number: 12, pages: 6881-6894
Publisher: AMER CHEMICAL SOC

SLU Authors

• Ferrero, Pablo Gago

  • Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Krettek, Agnes

  • Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Wiberg, Karin

  • Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Ahrens, Lutz

  • Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Global goals (SDG)

SDG3 Good health and well-being
SDG6 Clean water and sanitation
SDG14 Life below water

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b06598

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/95936