Health Risk Assessment on Hazardous Ingredients in Household Deodorizing Products

Abstract

The inhalation of a water aerosol from a humidifier containing disinfectants has led to serious lung injuries in Korea. To promote the safe use of products, the Korean government enacted regulations on the chemicals in various consumer products that could have adverse health effects. Given the concern over the potential health risks associated with the hazardous ingredients in deodorizing consumer products, 17 ingredients were analyzed and assessed according to their health risk on 3 groups by the application type in 47 deodorizing products. The risk assessment study followed a stepwise procedure (e.g., collecting toxicological information, hazard identification/exposure assessment, and screening and detailed assessment for inhalation and dermal routes). The worst-case scenario and maximum concentration determined by the product purpose and application type were used as the screening assessment. In a detailed assessment, the 75th exposure factor values were used to estimate the assumed reasonable exposure to ingredients. The exposed concentrations of seven ingredients were calculated. Due to limitation of toxicity information, butylated hydroxyl toluene for a consumer’s exposure via the dermal route only was conducted for a detailed assessment. This study showed that the assessed ingredients have no health risks at their maximum concentrations in deodorizing products. This approach can be used to establish guidelines for ingredients that may pose inhalation and dermal hazards.

Urinary concentrations of phenols in association with biomarkers of oxidative stress in pregnancy: Assessment of effects independent of phthalates

“…The results from the AENET analysis highlight the value of variable selection techniques in studies of correlated exposure biomarkers. We observed that dichlorophenol biomarkers in particular were correlated with the urinary phthalate metabolites MBzP, MBP, and MiBP, which may be attributable to shared exposure sources including pharmaceuticals, cleaning products, and deodorizers ( Hauser et al, 2004 ; Lee et al, 2018 ; Ye et al, 2014 ). Among the phthalate metabolites measured, these compounds showed the strongest associations with urinary oxidative stress biomarkers in our previous work ( Ferguson et al, 2014a ).…”

Microbial risks in food franchise: A step forward in establishing ideal cleaning and disinfection practices in SSOPs

“…Because ice cubes produced are delivered directly to the consumer in the final product without further sterilizing procedures, the risk for microbial exposure may be increased. Because public interest in chemicals is increasing because of humidifier sanitizer accidents (Lee et al, ), an acceptable range of chemical constituents in food grade tools was recently established, but the availability of cleaning or disinfection regarding microbial safety was not addressed. These factors are not legally considered when approving the import or production of food machinery.…”