Suspect and non-targeted screening of exposure biomarkers in urine from Korean adults: Mining archived data for insights from the Korean National Environmental Health Survey 3rd cycle

초록

Human biomonitoring campaigns such as the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) provide essential evidence of population-level chemical exposure to support regulation and health protection measures, but are restricted to a small number of targeted compounds. To broaden the scope of exposures assessed, this study applied suspect and non-targeted screening approaches to archived liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) data acquired from pooled urine samples of KoNEHS 3rd cycle (2015–2017), reprocessed using comprehensive open-access workflows. A total of 40 pooled samples from 398 individuals were extracted by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and analysed by LC-QTOF using data independent acquisition mode. Data processing workflows were applied in MS-Dial and MS-Finder including feature extraction, alignment, filtering and annotation against an in-house database of reference standards, external fragmentation spectra libraries and in-silico predicted spectra. Forty-five features were annotated with confidence levels ranging 1–3 comprising 24 parent compounds and 10 metabolites indicative of exposures to personal care products (PCPs), pharmaceuticals, mycotoxins, pesticides, emerging bisphenols and tobacco products. Several contaminants not previously reported in the KoNEHS 3rd cycle analyses included the toxic mycotoxins sterigmatocystin and zearalenone, the potential bisphenol A replacement bisphenol E, and a metabolic biomarker indicative of exposure to the pesticide pirimiphos-methyl. Frequent detection of PCP-related compounds such as UV-filters and parabens underscores their relevance for ongoing monitoring, while widespread occurrence of certain pharmaceuticals warrants further study to differentiate therapeutic use from unintended environmental exposure. Although constrained by extraction methods to mid-polar LLE-amenable compounds, this research demonstrates that SS and NTS of archived data can provide meaningful new insights regarding overlooked exposures in Korea. With expansion of SS and NTS workflows for comprehensive profiling and enhanced annotation confidence, such approaches can continue to guide prioritization of future KoNEHS cycles and contribute to international biomonitoring initiatives. © 2026 Elsevier Inc.

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