Suspect and non-target screening of chemicals of emerging Arctic concern in air, biota and human serum.

ABSTRACT

Contaminants of emerging concern receive increasing attention in the Arctic environment. The aim of this study was to screen for chemicals of emerging Arctic concern (CEACs) in different types of Arctic samples including biota, air and human serum. We used a combination of gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) with high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) for suspect and non-target screening (NTS). Suspect screening of 25 CEACs was based on published in-silico approaches for the identification of CEACs and revealed tetrabromophthalic anhydride (TBPA) in pilot whale and air, albeit with low detection frequencies (17 and 33%, respectively). An NTS workflow detected a total of 112 contaminants, i.e. 49, 42, 31 and 30 compounds in pilot whale, ringed seal, air, and human serum respectively at confidence level 2 and 3. Although legacy POPs still dominated the samples, 64 CEACs were tentatively identified and further tentatively assessed for persistence (P), bioaccumulation (B), mobility (M), toxicity (T), and long-range transport potential (LRTP). While four PBT compounds were identified, 37 PMT substances dominated among these 64 contaminants. Our study indicated that many chemicals of potential risk might be present in Arctic samples that would benefit from confirmation and further studies of their transport to and accumulation in the Arctic environment.