Research into the occurrence of unhealthy substances in the indoor environment by non-targeted screening of dust samples

In this assignment, we want to use non-target screening to find out which substances may be present in indoor dust samples and, based on this, to evaluate their possible effect on health. The assignment consists of 4 different phases: - In phase 1 a selection of indoor environments with possible sources for a wide variety of (new) chemical substances will be made in consultation with the steering committee. - In phase 2, based on this selection, indoor dust samples are collected from all addresses, whereby a sufficient quantity of samples is collected for the possible application of an additional analysis for concentration of certain chemical substances. After appropriate sample preparation, a non-target / suspect screening is first performed on the samples obtained. - In phase 3, the identified chemicals are evaluated for possible effects on human health. If necessary and possible, in this phase, a re-analysis of the collected dust samples is carried out, in which the concentrations of the most important chemicals found are determined semi-quantitatively (this is after all important for both the effect on health and an estimation of sources). - Based on the results obtained, in phase 4 a sampling and analysis strategy will be drawn up in function of human biomonitoring, taking into account the results of the non-target screening and the effective concentration determinations.

Keywords:ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANTS, MASS SPECTROMETRY

Disciplines:Spectroscopic methods, Environmental chemistry

Project type:Collaboration project