The production, use and subsequent release of large number of organic chemicals (OCs) have induced many adverse ecological and human health effects. Thus it is the firstly important step to identify and measure the OC concentrations in environmental matrices which is essential for causation validation in dose-effect analysis. By contrast, the number of environmentally monitored OCs is limited and in general currently used methods are time consuming and costly. The high throughout screening method could be an alternative for scientists and managers. Our proposed high throughout screening method was based on technologies of retention time locking and deconvolution for analysis of spectrum data. Firstly a method for screening a broad spectrum of 50 phenols was developed. The method was successfully applied for a screening risk assessment of phenols in Taihu Lake, China. Further, the method was developed to include 1093 OCs that substantially improves its qualitative screening (identification) ability. Combining with the Chemical Hazard Evaluation and Management Strategies, the method has proven to be feasible for site-specific screening of OCs to identify potential priority pollutants in Danjiangkou Reservior. At this stage, the developing method was proven effective in qualitative screening of OCs but is insufficient in quantitative analysis. To overcome that, we introduced a set of quantification internal standards to estimate concentrations of nearly 900 OCs in river sediments, which we referred as “semi-quantification”. OCs in sediments sampled from Haihe River basin were screened as an illustration. It is confirmed that the developed method is a useful way to fulfill a comprehensive analysis of OCs in sediments and would be valuable for the identification and prioritization of priority pollutants in watershed management. Recently, we further evaluated the reliability and usefulness of the generated data sets for OC pollution profiles and occurrence levels in Liaohe River watershed. It has been demonstrated that the high throughout screening method is suitable for understanding the pollution characteristics and occurrence levels of OCs. The above studies showed that the developed method was effective for its identification and quantification abilities. Future efforts include decreasing the detection limit, enlarging the OC database in the method, and selecting more suitable semi-quantification internal standards to improve the accuracy of the method.

Using a high throughout screening method to help discover risky organic contaminants in the environment

252nd National Meeting (2016)

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