Breaking Barriers that Limit Non-Targeted Analysis Through Stakeholder Engagement and Outreach

Emerging Environmental Applications for High Resolution Mass Spectrometry
Oral Presentation

Prepared by R. Marfil-Vega1, C. Fisher2, J. McCord3, S. Nason4
1 - Shimadzu Scientific Instruments, 7102 Riverwood Drive, Columbia, MD, 21046, United States
2 - Food and Drug Administration, 5001 Campus Drive, Colledge Park, MD, 20740, United States
3 - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 26 W Martin Luther King Dr, Cincinnati, OH, 45220, United States
4 - Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, , New Haven, CT, 06511, USA


Contact Information: [email protected]; 410-910-0884

ABSTRACT

Non-targeted analysis (NTA) using chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry is a powerful analytical technique to study organic contaminants in situations where it is impossible or impractical to have analytical standards for all analytes and/or not all analytes of interest are known prior to analysis, such as environmental and human exposure monitoring, food safety evaluation, forensic science, epidemiology, and chemical threat detection. NTA’s enormous potential for increased use is currently hindered because methods for ensuring quality control, accuracy, and reproducibility of NTA results are still in development for this emerging technique. The Best Practices for Non-Targeted Analysis working group (BP4NTA) works towards increasing the use of and improving the quality of NTA. The BP4NTA Stakeholder Subcommittee has worked to engage with data producers and users from various fields where NTA is relevant. We hosted a series of focus group meetings with representatives from food and agriculture, emergency response, and commercial environmental laboratories key stakeholders in the NELAC Institute community), as well as epidemiologists, regulatory risk assessors, regional regulators focused on PFAS, and regulators and consultants for the medical devices industry. These meetings, and subsequent participant surveys, have focused on discussing current uses of NTA in each field (or lack thereof), the drivers and barriers affecting its broader adoption and brainstorming actionable recommendations that BP4NTA together with other organizations (e.g., NORMAN, ASTM, AOAC, ISO…) and NTA-adjacent stakeholders can execute to broaden NTA use. In this presentation we will share the outcomes from these discussions (e.g, educational resources for technicians and management teams), including the priority projects identified with the participants and potential for partnership with the NELAC Institute’s community to carry them out. Continued feedback from attendees at NEMC 2024 will help us to further refine our efforts towards easing the NTA implementation and use within environmental laboratories. Abstract does not necessarily reflect agency policy.