Understanding and Reporting PFAS Exposure: Wide-Scope Retrospective Suspect Screening of High-Resolution Mass
Lapo Renai1, Federica Calabró1, Viktoriia Turkina1
1Van't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1090 GD, The Netherlands.
Environmental Science & Technology
|July 22, 2026
Summary
This study introduces a new method to detect more per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in human samples, revealing previously underestimated exposure levels and identifying new PFAS classes. This improves our understanding of widespread chemical contamination.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Chemistry
- Analytical Chemistry
- Toxicology
Background:
- Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widespread, persistent chemicals with thousands of variants.
- Current biomonitoring often misses many PFAS, leading to underestimation of total human exposure.
- Archived human biomonitoring data holds potential for broader PFAS exposure assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a wide-scope suspect screening analysis framework for extracting PFAS information from archived LC-HRMS exposomics datasets.
- To re-evaluate human biomonitoring studies using this framework to identify a broader range of PFAS.
- To improve the assessment of PFAS exposure patterns by reinterpreting existing biobanked data.
Main Methods:
- Developed a curated PFAS library (1,666 compounds) with structural and spectral data for LC-HRMS analysis.
- Reprocessed archived firefighter serum and population plasma samples using the developed framework.
- Employed advanced data processing including precursor accuracy, isotopic patterns, MS2 similarity, and retention time-index regression for robust identification.
Main Results:
- The framework successfully re-analyzed existing data, recovering up to 80% of previously identified PFAS.
- Discovered numerous high-confidence PFAS, including carboxylic, sulfonic, and sulfonamidoacetic acid homologues.
- Identified over 30 tentative PFAS series, including isomeric clusters and novel subclasses like alkylpyrimidine PFAS.
- Revealed consistent PFAS homologue patterns across different human exposure contexts.
Conclusions:
- The developed framework significantly enhances the ability to detect and identify a wider array of PFAS in human biomonitoring.
- This approach uncovers previously overlooked PFAS, providing a more accurate picture of human exposure.
- The study provides a valuable resource of confirmed and tentative PFAS structures, improving future exposomics research and risk assessment.
