Risk of Children's dermal exposure to galaxolide through personal care products

Abstract

Galaxolide is the most used fragrance since the early 1990s, and it has beenlargely detected in environmental and biological matrices. This polycyclic musk is presentin almost all of our daily products, so the risk of human exposure is substantial, as it hadbeen proved by its detection in human tissues and fluids. Due to the lack of informationabout the concentrations found in consumer products, monitoring data is needed forexposure assessment purposes. Dermal contact, mostly by personal care products, seems tobe the major route of human exposure to galaxolide, and, due to the immaturity of youngchildrens skin, exposure consequences can be worse in this population. The mainobjective of this study was to evaluate galaxolide levels in personal care products used bychildren of Oporto (Portugal), aged 05 years, and relate it with consumer habits.Consumer patterns were obtained through 250 questionnaires to caregivers of Oportochildren. The 79 most used products were extracted by a dispersive solid phase extractionmethodology known as QuEChERS and galaxolide was determined by High PerformanceLiquid Chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. The concentrations rangedbetween 0.001 ± 0.001 mg·kg1, on a baby wipe, and 300.480 ± 8.819 mg·kg1, on glycerinsoap, which may correspond to an estimated daily dermal exposure of 277.10 ± 0.02 µg·day on the population of Oporto children. This value is in the range of the results observed foradults, although no information of toxicological risk for children is available.