Nontarget Screening and Time-Trend Analysis of Sewage Sludge Contaminants via Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry.

Nondestructive sample cleanup and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analysis generated a massive amount of data that could be used for nontarget screening purposes. We present a data reduction and prioritization strategy that involves time-trend analysis of nontarget data. Sewage sludge collected between 2005 and 2015 in Stockholm (Sweden) was retrieved from an environmental specimen bank, extracted, and analyzed by GC×GC-HRMS. After data alignment features with high blank levels, artifacts and low detection frequency were removed. Features that appeared in four to six out of ten years were reprocessed to fill in gaps. The total number of compounds was reduced by more than 97% from almost 60 000 to almost 1500. The remaining compounds were analyzed for monotonic (log-linear) and nonmonotonic (smoother) time trends. In total, 192 compounds with log-linear trends and 120 compounds with nonmonotonic trends were obtained, respectively. Most compounds described by a log-linear trend exhibited decreasing trends and were traffic-related. Compounds with increasing trends included UV-filters, alkyl-phenols, and flavor and fragrances, which often could be linked to trade statistics. We have shown that nontarget screening and stepwise reduction of data provides a simple way of revealing significant changes in emissions of chemicals in society.