Geospatial assessment of trace-level benzophenone-3 in a fish-bearing river using direct mass spectrometry

• Main Authors: Vandergrift, Gregory W., Lattanzio-Battle, William, Rodgers, Thea R., Atkinson, Jamieson B., Krogh, Erik T., Gill, Chris G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ACS Publications 2022
• Subjects: Mass spectrometry; Organic compounds; Environmental monitoring; Water quality > Measurement; First Nations
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.25316/IR-18179; https://viurrspace.ca/handle/10613/26447

This is a peer-reviewed accepted manuscript version of an article that was published as: Vandergrift, G.W., Lattanzio-Battle, W., Rodgers, T.R., Atkinson, J.B., Krogh, E.T., & Gill, C.G. (2022). Geospatial assessment of trace-level benzophenone-3 in a fish-bearing river using direct mass spectrometry. ACS ES&T Water, 2(2), 262-267. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.1c00205 Benzophenone-3 (2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone) is present in many sunscreens/cosmetics due to its UV-filtering properties, and has consequently been observed in recreational waters. There are growing concerns about endocrine disruption in aquatic organisms and broader impacts in freshwater and marine systems. Therefore, there is value in cost-effective, sensitive techniques that allow for high-density, spatiotemporal data to protect environmental health and inform public policy. Condensed phase membrane introduction mass spectrometry coupled to liquid electron ionization with in situ chemical ionization (CP-MIMS-LEI/CI) is a novel direct tandem mass spectrometry technique that fulfills these criteria, and was applied to direct measurements of benzophenone-3 in environmental water samples without any sample preparation. We report results that are sensitive (20 ng/L detection limit), reproducible (11% interday variability), and comparable to LC-MS/MS for environmental samples (n=4; 12-24% different). CP-MIMS-LEI/CI was applied to samples (n=33) from the Cowichan River and Cowichan Lake (British Columbia, Canada), an important fish-bearing system significant to First Nations culture, salmonid production, and recreation. The quantitative analysis afforded by CP-MIMS-LEI/CI enabled geospatial benzophenone-3 analysis, identifying elevated concentrations (>180 ng/L) associated with local recreational activity. LC-MS/MS measurements for samples from two locations suggest a correlation between the number of swimmers and benzophenone-3 concentrations (R2 = 0.88, 0.94). ...