Determining Exposure Factors of Anti-Fogging, Dye, Disinfectant, Repellent, and Preservative Products in Korea

Abstract

Reliable exposure factors are essential to determine health risks posed by chemicals in consumer products. We analyzed five risk-concerned product categories (anti-fogging, dye, disinfectant, repellent, and preservative products) for 13 products (three car anti-fogging products, a lens anti-fogging product, two car dye products, two drain disinfectants, an air conditioner disinfectant, a chlorine-based disinfectant, a fabric repellent, an insect repellent for food, and a wood preservative) considered to be of high risk in order to determine exposure factors via web surveys and estimation of amount of product. Among the 3000 participants (1482 (49%) men) aged ≥19 years, drain disinfectants were used most frequently (38.2%); the rate of usage of the other products ranged between 1.1–24.0%. The usage rates for the consumer products differed by sex, age, income, and education. Some consumer products such as car and lens anti-fogging products, chlorine-based disinfectants, fabric repellents, and drain disinfectants were regularly used more than once a month, while car dye products, air conditioner disinfectants, insect repellents for food, and wood preservatives were not regularly used owing to the specific product purposes and seasonal needs. Our results could be used for managing or controlling chemical substances in consumer products and conducting accurate exposure assessments.

Combined Assessment of Preschool Childrens’ Exposure to Substances in Household Products

“…All respondents were actual consumers of the studied product groups. To ensure that the study population was representative of the Korean population, gender-balanced participants with equal age-group distributions were selected [ 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

Potential Health Risks of Chemicals in Car Colorant Products

“…Therefore, previous studies have been conducted to identify product usage patterns (e.g., frequency of use, amount of use per application, etc.) of national consumers, which are used as input parameters in exposure assessments [10,11,12,13]. The European Center for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals [14] and the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health [15] developed an exposure assessment tool for consumer products.…”