A simple and fast method for the determination of PAHs in smoked meat samples was described. The QuEChERS (Z-Sep) procedure was used for sample preparation. Gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer with electron ionization (EI) was used to separate and detect the PAHs. All 16 common PAHs were analyzed successfully. Matrix-matched calibration was applied. Spiked samples were performed at 1 ng/g (n=10) and 10 ng/g (n=10) for two days. Overall recoveries of PAHs were within 74 to 117%, with RSDs within 1.15 to 37.57% and 1 and 10 ng/g wet weight for first and second day, respectively. In most of the analyzed smoked meat samples, there were no exceeded levels compared to the maximum levels declared by Commission Regulation (EU) number 835/2011. The method can be recommended for routine analysis for laboratories having a large number of samples.

The World Antidoping Agency (WADA) Monitoring program concentrates analytical data from the WADA Accredited Laboratories for substances which are not prohibited but whose potential misuse must be known. The WADA List of Monitoring substances is updated annually, where substances may be removed, introduced or transferred to the Prohibited List, depending on the prevalence of their use. Retroactive processing of old sample datafiles has the potential to create information for the prevalence of use of candidate substances for the Monitoring List in previous years. MetAlign is a freeware software with functionality to reduce the size of liquid chromatography (LC)/ high-resolution (HR) full-scan (FS) mass spectrometry (MS) datafiles and to perform a fast search for the presence of substances in thousands of reduced datafiles. Methods: Validation was performed to the search procedure of MetAlign applied to Anti-Doping Lab Qatar (ADLQ)-screened LC/HR-FS-MS reduced datafiles originated from antidoping samples for tramadol (TRA), ecdysterone (ECDY) and the ECDY metabolite 14-desoxyecdysterone (DESECDY) of the WADA Monitoring List. Searching parameters were related to combinations of accurate masses and retention times (RTs). Results: MetAlign search validation criteria were based on the creation of correct identifications, false positives (FPs) and false negatives (FNs). The search for TRA in 7410 ADLQ routine LC/HR-FS-MS datafiles from the years 2017 to 2020 revealed no false identification (FPs and FNs) compared with the ADLQ WADA reports. ECDY Safa Khelifi and Khadija Saad contributed equally to this work.

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Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) are an important class of chemical carcinogens formed as a result of incomplete combustion; it is therefore found in grilled foods, tobacco smoke and in general, the environment. Previous studies have shown exposure of smokers and second hand smokers (SHS) towards a whole host of PAHs and more than 500 of these have been demonstrated in tobacco smoke. As it is ubiquitous in the environment, exposure may result from various sources; for cigarette smokers a number of these PAHs markers have been correlated to tobacco smoke exposure while others like benzo(a)pyrene has been associated with environmental and occupational exposures. Tobacco smoke from narghile or "shisha" has been shown to contain approximately 50 times more PAHs compared to cigarette smoke; this phenomenally high exposure can significantly increase risks of narghile smokers towards the toxic carcinogenic effects of this class of compounds. In this study, the smoke condensates in shisha water was extracted and analysed for 16 targeted PAHs using Selected Ion Monitoring (SIM) mode on the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS). As part of the establishment of a validated quantitated method, the LOD (limit of detection), LOQ (limit of quantification), linearity, reproducibility and precision as well as robustness were determined for all 16 PAHs. The PAHs were quantitated in 20 shisha water collected from 20 different locations; as PAHs in shisha water may be directly related to the amount of charcoal and flavourings as well as amount of condensate, the profiles were found to be vastly/relatively different. Included is a discussion of these relative differences and their implications for shisha users. Finally, preliminary work is presented for the discovery of more toxic nitrated PAH in the shisha water condensate.