Concept for the assessment of dermal exposure to biocides used in household products
S. Hahn1, A. Bitsch*1, S. Gartiser2, I. Mangelsdorf1, S. Melching-Kollmuss1, K. Schneider3
1Fraunhofer ITEM, Department Chemical Risk Assessment, Hannover, Germany
2Hydrotox GmbH, Freiburg, Germany
3FoBiG GmbH, Freiburg, Germany
Background
At present over 1000 biocidal active substances in more than 15000 products are on the market in the EU. Also in daily living biocides are widely-used for e.g. disinfection, as insecticides, in domestic cleaning products (liquid soaps, detergents) and in paints, dyes, inks, polishes. With the increasing requirements on hygiene at home, the market for antibacterial cleaning agents or other antibacterial household products like toilet seats has been growing markedly in recent years.
In the 2nd Review Regulation to the Biocide Products Directive 98/8/EC (BPD) 210 active substances are notified for product types 1 “human hygiene products”, 2 “private area and public health area disinfectant” and 6 “in-can preservatives”, which are the most relevant categories for household products. In addition the consumer is dealing with biocides of product types 8 “wood preservation“, 18 “insecticides“ and 19 “repellents“. Additive effects are supposed to occur, at least if the biocides have a similar mode of action.
The research project “risk for health by biocides containing products and articles of the daily need" (FKZ 204 61 218/05) financed by the German Federal Environmental Agency addresses this problem. The project started in October 2004 and is planned for one year. Regarding the use of biocidal products by consumers, some special points have to be considered: The presence of biocides in consumer products and their potential hazard is often not clear to the consumer. The multitude of possibilities of application and of active substances results in different sources of biocidal active substances with similar character and effect in the domestic environment. Besides a potential for inhalative exposure by some biocidal active substances (e.g. alcohols and aldehydes), for the majority of consumer products (such as cosmetics) and/or scenarios (cleaning) the dermal exposure is the most important exposure pathway. The objective of this research project is the modelling of the overall exposure to single biocidal active substances, present in various consumer products and the assessment of the combined risk for human health.
Methods
The strategy within this project is an iterative procedure following the relevant steps:
1. Collecting information on biocidal ingredients of consumer products (market overview) like tonnage, concentration and recommendation for application;
2. Estimating the human exposure by using relevant consumer use scenarios like ”cleaning/spraying in bath room”, “spraying of/putting on personal care products”, “unprofessional indoor building work”, “spraying/evaporating of insecticides” or especially for children “playing with finger paints/plasticine”. The exposure will be estimated on basis of point assumptions (worst-case, typical case) and model calculations (e.g. ConsExpo, CEM).
3. Collecting information on toxicity and physical-chemical parameters of active substances most commonly used
4. Estimation of the combined risk for human health using various biocidal products
Results
In the poster the preliminary results of the market share will be presented including type of products, type of active ingredients and recommended use patterns. The scenario “cleaning bath room” will be described in detail. The sources and extent of the dermal exposure during different tasks (mopping, wiping, dipping into cleaning solution, spraying) is studied and estimated. The extent of the combined exposure (several active ingredients in several products) is estimated.
Conclusions
Biocides are widely-used in household products and combined dermal (and inhalative) exposure may occur. Due to the several sources for single biocidal substances the total burden from all these sources as well as additive effects have to be considered in an overall assessment of the consumer exposure.
Content last modified: 22 May 2005
