TY - JOUR
T1 - Interlaboratory Comparison Investigations (ICIs) and External Quality Assurance Schemes (EQUASs) for human biomonitoring of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in serum as part of the quality assurance programme under HBM4EU
AU - Nübler, Stefanie
AU - Esteban López, Marta
AU - Castaño, Argelia
AU - Mol, Hans G.J.
AU - Haji-Abbas-Zarrabi, Karin
AU - Schäfer, Moritz
AU - Müller, Johannes
AU - Hajslova, Jana
AU - Dvorakova, Darina
AU - Antignac, Jean Philippe
AU - Koch, Holger M.
AU - Haug, Line Småstuen
AU - Vorkamp, Katrin
AU - Göen, Thomas
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge funding by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 733032 HBM4EU. The authors would like to thank the HBM4EU Secretariat at the German Environment Agency for administrative support and the entire IPASUM laboratory team for their invaluable contribution. Moreover, the authors would like to express their special thanks to Shimadzu Techno–Research, Inc. (Japan), Centre de toxicology du Québec at INSPQ (Canada), Umweltbundesamt GmbH, Abteilung Umweltanalytik (Austria), LABERCA at ONIRIS-INRA (France), the Environment and Health Department at Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italy), and the Department of Environmental Exposure and Epidemiology at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Norway) for their significant support as expert laboratories. The authors acknowledge all the participating laboratories that made the HBM4EU QA/QC programme possible as well as the Management and Advisory Boards of HBM4EU.
Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge funding by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 733032 HBM4EU . The authors would like to thank the HBM4EU Secretariat at the German Environment Agency for administrative support and the entire IPASUM laboratory team for their invaluable contribution. Moreover, the authors would like to express their special thanks to Shimadzu Techno–Research, Inc. (Japan), Centre de toxicology du Québec at INSPQ (Canada), Umweltbundesamt GmbH, Abteilung Umweltanalytik (Austria), LABERCA at ONIRIS-INRA (France), the Environment and Health Department at Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italy), and the Department of Environmental Exposure and Epidemiology at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Norway) for their significant support as expert laboratories. The authors acknowledge all the participating laboratories that made the HBM4EU QA/QC programme possible as well as the Management and Advisory Boards of HBM4EU.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/11/15
Y1 - 2022/11/15
N2 - Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are of very high concern due to their persistence and accumulative behaviour as well as their manifold adverse health effects. Human biomonitoring (HBM) based on the determination of PFASs in serum samples is an adequate and established strategy for exposure and risk assessment of the population. The suspected health risks associated with exposure levels in the general population call for reliable HBM data verified by Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) measures. PFASs were among the chemicals selected as priority substances in HBM4EU, a pan-European project to harmonize and advance HBM within 30 European countries. For this purpose, the analytical comparability and accuracy of PFASs-analysing laboratories was assessed in a QA/QC programme comprising Interlaboratory Comparison Investigations (ICIs) and External Quality Assurance Schemes (EQUASs). This paper presents the evaluation process and discusses the results of four ICI/EQUAS rounds for the determination of eight perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids and four perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (PFBS, PFHxS, PFHpS, PFOS) in serum. All 21 participating laboratories achieved satisfactory results for at least six of these biomarkers, although low limits of quantification (of about 0.1 μg/L) were required to quantify serum PFAS levels at general population exposure levels. The mean relative standard deviation of the participants' results (study RSDR) significantly improved from 22 % to 13 % over all PFAS biomarkers in the course of the four rounds. This QA/QC programme succeeded in establishing a network of laboratories with high analytical comparability and accuracy for the analysis of PFASs across 12 European countries.
AB - Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are of very high concern due to their persistence and accumulative behaviour as well as their manifold adverse health effects. Human biomonitoring (HBM) based on the determination of PFASs in serum samples is an adequate and established strategy for exposure and risk assessment of the population. The suspected health risks associated with exposure levels in the general population call for reliable HBM data verified by Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) measures. PFASs were among the chemicals selected as priority substances in HBM4EU, a pan-European project to harmonize and advance HBM within 30 European countries. For this purpose, the analytical comparability and accuracy of PFASs-analysing laboratories was assessed in a QA/QC programme comprising Interlaboratory Comparison Investigations (ICIs) and External Quality Assurance Schemes (EQUASs). This paper presents the evaluation process and discusses the results of four ICI/EQUAS rounds for the determination of eight perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids and four perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (PFBS, PFHxS, PFHpS, PFOS) in serum. All 21 participating laboratories achieved satisfactory results for at least six of these biomarkers, although low limits of quantification (of about 0.1 μg/L) were required to quantify serum PFAS levels at general population exposure levels. The mean relative standard deviation of the participants' results (study RSDR) significantly improved from 22 % to 13 % over all PFAS biomarkers in the course of the four rounds. This QA/QC programme succeeded in establishing a network of laboratories with high analytical comparability and accuracy for the analysis of PFASs across 12 European countries.
KW - Analytical methods
KW - HBM4EU
KW - Internal exposure
KW - Perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids
KW - Perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acid
KW - Z-scores
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157481
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157481
M3 - Article
C2 - 35868372
AN - SCOPUS:85135102412
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 847
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 157481
ER -
