Breaking Barriers that Limit Non-Targeted Analysis Chemistry Data Use Through Stakeholder Engagement and Outreach
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Non-targeted analysis (NTA) using gas or liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) is a powerful analytical technique that is increasingly used to study organic contaminants in situations where it is impossible or impractical to have analytical standards for all analytes and/or not all analytes of interest are known prior to analysis. Common NTA applications include environmental and human exposure monitoring, food safety evaluation, and forensic science, and there is enormous potential for increased use in other analytical and decision-making contexts. The mission of Best Practices for Non-Targeted Analysis (BP4NTA), an international working group of NTA practitioners, is to facilitate and promote the use of NTA data by addressing gaps in NTA reporting, establishing accepted quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) practices, and providing informational resources/tools for NTA data generators and users.To ensure that ongoing and future BP4NTA efforts align with the needs of NTA stakeholders, the BP4NTA Stakeholder Subcommittee engaged with representatives from a variety of NTA-adjacent fields (food and agricultural chemists [n = 6], emergency responders [n = 5], professionals from commercial and nonprofit environmental laboratories [n = 5], epidemiologists [n = 12], human health risk assessors [n = 6], state and regional PFAS assessors [n = 8], employees from public water utilities [n = 5], and medical devices industry regulators [n = 7] and consultants [n = 6] ) in a series of online focus group meetings.