Methods and Measurements for Emerging Contaminants

Summary:

Regulatory and health agencies within the US, Canada, and countries within Europe are continuously identifying compounds of suspected carcinogenic or toxicological risk. These compounds are often described as emerging contaminants. Once the health risks are identified, accurate analytical methods need to be developed and verified for quantifying these emerging contaminants in relevant samples.

Description:

NIST has a wide range of natural-matrix reference materials and a collection of tissues from many different specimens in the Marine Environmental Specimen Bank. The SRMs are of known homogeneity so can serve as target materials for method development for a wide range of emerging contaminants. The tissues within the Specimen Bank provide an opportunity to do spatial and temporal trend studies for the emerging contaminants once analytical methods are developed.

Additional Technical Details:

As groups of emerging contaminants are identified and sources of neat compounds become available for those analytes, critically evaluated methods are developed and applied to SRMs of relevance. The data from the SRM studies are critically evaluated by statistical analysis and values are added to the Certificates of Analysis as appropriate and published in peer-reviewed journals. These SRMs are then useful to the analytical community for method development and comparability. Once the methods are established, specimens from the Marine Environmental Specimen Bank are identified for studies of spatial and temporal trends of the emerging contaminants.

Major Accomplishments:

Methods for brominated flame retardants (BFRs), particularly polybrominated diphenyl ethers, have been developed and values added to the Certificates of Analysis for a wide range of SRM matrices.
Methods are currently being developed for the newer BFRs.
Methods have been developed for musk compounds and data published for a variety of SRM matrices.
Methods are being developed for perfluorinated compounds and applied to SRMs and to Specimen Bank samples.

Start Date:

January 1, 1980

End Date:

Ongoing

Lead Organizational Unit:

mml

Source of Extramural Funding:

NOAA

Staff:

Jennifer Keller
John Kucklick
Katrice Lippa
Jessica Reiner

Related Programs and Projects:

Marine Environmental Specimen Bank
NIST Aids NOAA with Marine Animal Health Assessments
Monitoring Contaminants in the Arctic and Subarctic using Banked Seabird Eggs
Isotopes as Environmental Tracers in Archived Biological Specimens

Associated Products:

SRM 1588b Organics in Cod Liver Oil - polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chlorinated pesticides, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and fatty acids

SRM 1945 Organics in Whale Blubber - PCBs, chlorinated pesticides, PBDEs

SRM 1946 Lake Superior Fish Tissue - PCBs, chlorinated pesticides, PBDEs, fatty acids (including omega-3 fatty acids), extractable fat, methylmercury, total mercury, and selected trace elements

SRM 1947 Lake Michigan Fish Tissue - selected trace elements, methylmercury, total mercury, PCBs, chlorinated pesticides, PBDEs, proximates, caloric content and fatty acids

SRM 1953 Contaminants in Non-Fortified Human Milk - organic and inorganic constituents

SRM 1954 Contaminants in Fortified Human Milk - organic and inorganic constituents

SRM 1957 Contaminants in Non-Fortified Human Serum - organic and inorganic constituents

SRM 1958 Contaminants in Fortified Human Serum - organic and inorganic constituents

SRM 1974b Organics in Mussel Tissue (Mytilus edulis) - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), PCBs, chlorinated pesticides, PBDEs, methylmercury, and trace elements

SRM 2585 Organic Contaminants in House Dust - PAHs, PCBs, chlorinated pesticides, PBDEs

SRM 2977 Mussel Tissue (Organic Contaminants and Trace Elements) - PAHs, PCBs, chlorinated pesticides, PBDEs, methylmercury, trace elements

Associated Publications:

Peck, A.M., "Analytical methods for the determination of persistent ingredients of personal care products in environmental matrices," Anal. Bioanal. Chem., 386, 907-939 (2006).

Poster, D.L., Kucklick, J.R., Schantz, M.M., Leigh, S.D., and Wise, S.A., “Development of a House Dust Standard Reference Material for the Determination of Organic Contaminants,” Environ. Sci Technol., 41, 2861-2867 (2007).

Stapleton, H.M. Keller, J.M., Schantz, M.M., Kucklick, J.R., Leigh, S.D., and Wise, S.A., "Determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in environmental standard reference materials," Anal. Bioanal. Chem., 387, 2365-2379 (2007).

Schantz, M.M., Keller, J.M., Leigh, S., Patterson Jr., D.G., Sharpless, K.E., Sjödin, A., Stapleton, H.M., Swarthout, R., Turner, W.E., and Wise, S.A., "Certification of SRM 1589a PCBs, pesticides, PBDEs, and dioxins/furnas in human serum," Anal. Bioanal. Chem., 389, 1201-1208 (2007).

Swarthout, R.F., Kucklick, J.R., and Davis, W.C. "The determination of polybrominated diphenyl ether congeners by gas chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry" JAAS, 28, 1575-1580 (2008).

Keller, J.M., Swarthout, R.F., Carlson, B.K.R., Yordy, J., Guichard, A., Schantz, M.M., and Kucklick, J.R., "Comparison of five extraction methods for measuring PCBs, PBDEs, organochlorine pesticides, and lipid content in serum" Anal. Bioanal. Chem., (accepted).

Contact

Lane C. Sander
Phone 301-975-3117
lane.sander@nist.gov

Michele M. Schantz
Phone 301-975-3016
michele.schantz@nist.gov