Prioritization,\nIdentification, and Quantification\nof Emerging Contaminants in Recycled Textiles Using Non-Targeted and\nSuspect Screening Workflows by LC-ESI-HRMS

Recycled textiles are becoming widely available to consumers\nas\nmanufacturers adopt circular economy principles to reduce the negative\nimpact of garment production. Still, the quality of the source material\ndirectly impacts the final product, where the presence of harmful\nchemicals is of utmost concern. Here, we develop a risk-based suspect\nand non-targeted screening workflow for the detection, identification,\nand prioritization of the chemicals present in consumer-based recycled\ntextile products after manufacture and transport. We apply the workflow\nto characterize 13 recycled textile products from major retail outlets\nin Sweden. Samples were extracted and analyzed by liquid chromatography\ncoupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). In positive\nand negative ionization mode, 20,119 LC-HRMS features were detected and screened against persistent,\nmobile, and toxic (PMT) as well as other textile-related chemicals.\nSix substances were matched with PMT substances that are regulated\nin the European Union (EU) with a Level 2/3 confidence. Forty-three\nsubstances were confidently matched with textile-related chemicals\nreported for use in Sweden. For estimating the relative priority score,\naquatic toxicity and concentrations were predicted for 7416 features\nwith tandem mass spectra (MS<sup>2</sup>) and used to rank the non-targeted\nfeatures. The top 10 substances were evaluated due to elevated environmental\nrisk linked to the recycling process and potential release at end-of-life.