Comparative Assessment of Personal Exposures to Environmental Contaminants Using Silicone Wristbands and Fresh Air Wristbands

Abstract Wearable passive samplers are practical tools for personal exposure assessment, yet how sampler design and analysis methods shape the resulting measurements remains poorly characterized. We compared two widely used samplers, silicone and Fresh Air wristbands, worn simultaneously by 30 adults in Durham County, North Carolina, USA over 5 days with paired urine collection. All samples were analyzed using gas chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry, covering a broad chemical space (m/z 53.4–1050), using five analytical approaches to separate the influence of sampler design from that of analytical workflow. Targeted analysis of 15 chemicals showed systematically different concentrations that were correlated between designs for several compounds: silicone wristbands had 33- to 189-fold higher levels of less volatile compounds, while Fresh Air wristbands captured 9- to 80-fold higher levels of more volatile compounds. The magnitude of these differences increased with the log KOA. Suspect screening annotated 1330 compounds in silicone wristbands versus 2261 in Fresh Air wristbands, with distinct molecular weight distributions: higher in molecular weight in silicone wristbands (80% at 100–300 MW) compared to Fresh Air wristbands (93% at 50–200 MW). Measurement of the flame-retardant TCPP from both wristbands correlated with its urinary metabolite. Sampler design and analytical methods each influenced measured exposures, underscoring the need for harmonization and well-documented methods to enable cross-study comparison.