Suspect Screening of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in New Firefighter Turnout Gear Textiles

Published

March 20, 2025

Author(s)

Andrew Maizel, Andre Thompson, Benjamin Place, Alix Rodowa, Jessica Reiner, Audrey Tombaugh, Halen Solomon, Brittany Stinger, Michelle Donnelly, Rick Davis

Abstract

Firefighter turnout gear provides protection from exposure to flame, heat, and liquids, but has also been found to contain numerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Previous examinations of PFAS in firefighter turnout gear have predominantly relied solely on targeted analytical approaches, which only quantify PFAS for which there are previously established quantitative methods. This NIST Technical Note describes the use of liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry coupled with suspect screening of over 4,000 PFAS in firefighter turnout gear textiles and is the first use of this analytical approach for PFAS identification in any outerwear textile. PFAS are ionized with negative mode electrospray and the resulting mass spectral features are screened against the NIST PFAS Suspect List as either [M-H]- ions or [M+C2H3O2]- adducts to allow for the detection of a more chemically diverse set of PFAS than would be possible with either method separately. Formula annotations are evaluated by comparison of precursor ion spectra against predicted isotopic distributions while compound annotations are evaluated by comparison of product ion spectra against previously collected spectra using the NIST Database Infrastructure for Mass Spectrometry (DIMSpec) application MSMatch. Six PFAS compound annotations are confirmed with high confidence, including four that were not quantified in a previously reported targeted analysis of PFAS in the same textiles. Additionally, this is the first reported identification of three PFAS (perfluorobutane sulfonamido ethanol, perfluorobutane sulfonamido diethanol, and 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfate) in firefighter gear as well as any outerwear textiles. Overall, this NIST Technical Note demonstrates the need for wider PFAS screening techniques than can be provided by targeted analysis alone and also the capability of MSMatch to provide and evaluate PFAS compound annotations.

Citation

Technical Note (NIST TN) - 2334

Report Number

2334

NIST Pub Series

Technical Note (NIST TN)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2334

Local Download

Keywords

Firefighter, firefighter gear, high resolution-mass spectrometry, nontargeted analysis, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, suspect screening, turnout gear.

Citation

Maizel, A. , Thompson, A. , Place, B. , Rodowa, A. , Reiner, J. , Tombaugh, A. , Solomon, H. , Stinger, B. , Donnelly, M. and Davis, R. (2025), Suspect Screening of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in New Firefighter Turnout Gear Textiles, Technical Note (NIST TN), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2334, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=959705 (Accessed March 28, 2025)