a Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory , U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , Research Triangle Park , NC , USA.
b Department of Environmental Engineering , Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University , Merkez/Çanakkale , Turkey.
J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2019;82(4):244-260. doi: 10.1080/15287394.2019.1587901. Epub 2019 Mar 23.
A non-targeted analysis workflow was applied to analyze exhaled breath samples collected from firefighters pre- and post-structural fire suppression. Breath samples from firefighters functioning in attack and search positions were examined for target and non-target compounds in automated thermal desorption-GC/MS (ATD-GC/MS) selected ion monitoring (SIM)/scan mode and reviewed for prominent chemicals. Targeted chemicals included products of combustion such as benzene, toluene, xylenes, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) that serve as a standard assessment of exposure. Sixty unique chemical features representative of exogenous chemicals and endogenous compounds, including single-ring aromatics, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile sulfur-containing compounds, aldehydes, alkanes, and alkenes were identified using the non-targeted analysis workflow. Fifty-seven out of 60 non-targeted features changed by at least 50% from pre- to post-fire suppression activity in at least one subject, and 7 non-targeted features were found to exhibit significantly increased or decreased concentrations for all subjects as a group. This study is important for (1) alerting the firefighter community to potential new exposures, (2) expanding the current targeted list of toxicants, and (3) finding biomarkers of response to firefighting activity as reflected by changes in endogenous compounds. Data demonstrate that there are non-targeted compounds in firefighters' breath that are indicative of environmental exposure despite the use of protective gear, and this information may be further utilized to improve the effectiveness of personal protective equipment.
应用非靶向分析工作流程分析了消防员在扑灭结构火灾前后采集的呼气样本。对在攻击和搜索位置工作的消防员的呼气样本进行了目标和非目标化合物的分析，在自动热解吸-气相色谱/质谱（ATD-GC/MS）选择离子监测（SIM）/扫描模式下进行了检测，并对突出的化学物质进行了审查。目标化合物包括燃烧产物，如苯、甲苯、二甲苯和多环芳烃（PAH），这些化合物是暴露评估的标准。使用非靶向分析工作流程，鉴定了 60 种独特的化学特征，代表外源性化学物质和内源性化合物，包括单环芳烃、多核芳烃、挥发性含硫化合物、醛、烷烃和烯烃。在至少一个研究对象中，有 57 种非靶向特征在灭火前后的变化至少为 50%，而 7 种非靶向特征在所有研究对象中都表现出浓度显著增加或降低。这项研究对于（1）提醒消防员社区注意潜在的新暴露，（2）扩展当前有毒物质的目标清单，以及（3）寻找反映消防员活动反应的生物标志物，如内源性化合物的变化。数据表明，尽管使用了防护装备，但消防员呼吸中的非目标化合物表明存在环境暴露，并且可以进一步利用这些信息来提高个人防护设备的有效性。
