Proficiency and Interlaboratory Variability in the Determination of Phthalate and DINCH Biomarkers in Human Urine: Results from the HBM4EU Project
Hans G. J. Mol,
Ingrid Elbers,
Claudia Pälmke,
Daniel Bury,
Thomas Göen,
Marta Esteban López,
Stefanie Nübler,
Vincent Vaccher,
Jean-Philippe Antignac,
Darina Dvořáková,
Jana Hajšlová,
Amrit Kaur Sakhi,
Cathrine Thomsen,
Katrin Vorkamp,
Argelia Castaño,
Holger M. Koch
Affiliations
Hans G. J. Mol
Wageningen Food Safety Research, Part of Wageningen University & Research, 6708 WB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Ingrid Elbers
Wageningen Food Safety Research, Part of Wageningen University & Research, 6708 WB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Claudia Pälmke
Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr-University Bochum, 44789 Bochum, Germany
Daniel Bury
Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr-University Bochum, 44789 Bochum, Germany
Thomas Göen
Institute and Outpatient Clinic of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
Marta Esteban López
National Centre for Environmental Health, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28220 Majadahonda, Spain
Stefanie Nübler
Institute and Outpatient Clinic of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
Vincent Vaccher
LABERCA, Oniris, INRAE, 44307 Nantes, France
Jean-Philippe Antignac
LABERCA, Oniris, INRAE, 44307 Nantes, France
Darina Dvořáková
Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, University of Chemistry and Technology, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic
Jana Hajšlová
Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, University of Chemistry and Technology, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic
Amrit Kaur Sakhi
Department of Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0213 Oslo, Norway
Cathrine Thomsen
Department of Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0213 Oslo, Norway
Katrin Vorkamp
Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
Argelia Castaño
National Centre for Environmental Health, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28220 Majadahonda, Spain
Holger M. Koch
Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr-University Bochum, 44789 Bochum, Germany
A quality assurance/quality control program was implemented in the framework of the EU project HBM4EU to assess and improve the comparability of biomarker analysis and to build a network of competent laboratories. Four rounds of proficiency tests were organized for 15 phthalate and two DINCH urinary biomarkers (0.2–138 ng/mL) over a period of 18 months, with the involvement of 28 laboratories. A substantial improvement in performance was observed after the first round in particular, and by the end of the program, an average satisfactory performance rate of 90% was achieved. The interlaboratory reproducibility as derived from the participants’ results varied for the various biomarkers and rounds, with an average of 24% for the biomarkers of eight single-isomer phthalates (e.g., DnBP and DEHP) and 43% for the more challenging biomarkers of the mixed-isomer phthalates (DiNP, DiDP) and DINCH. When the reproducibility was based only on the laboratories that consistently achieved a satisfactory performance, this improved to 17% and 26%, respectively, clearly demonstrating the success of the QA/QC efforts. The program thus aided in building capacity and the establishment of a network of competent laboratories able to generate comparable and accurate HBM data for phthalate and DINCH biomarkers in 14 EU countries. In addition, global comparability was ensured by including external expert laboratories.