Investigation on Combined Inhalation Exposure Scenarios to Biocidal Mixtures: Biocidal and Household Chemical Products in South Korea

Abstract

Global regulations of biocides have been continuously enhanced for protecting human health and the environment from potentially harmful biocidal products. Such regulations consider the combined toxicity caused by mixture components in a biocidal product of which approval and authorization are to be enhanced. Although the combined exposure scenarios of components in mixtures are firstly needed to conduct the mixture risk assessment, systematic combined exposure scenarios are still lacking. In this study, combined inhalation exposure scenarios of biocides in household chemical and biocidal products marketed in South Korea were investigated based on the European Union (EU) and Korean chemical product databases and various data sources integration. The information of 1058 biocidal products and 675 household chemical products that are likely to cause inhalation exposure with two or more biocides was collected, and mixture combination patterns were investigated. Binary mixtures occupied 72% in biocidal products. The most frequently appearing binary mixture was phthalthrin and d-phenothrin. Based on the frequency of use, we suggested a priority list of biocide mixture combinations which need to be firstly evaluated for identifying their combined toxicity for the mixture risk assessment. This study highlights that the derived combined inhalation exposure scenarios can support and facilitate further studies on priority settings for mixture risk assessment and management of potentially inhalable biocides.

Novel QSAR Models for Molecular Initiating Event Modeling in Two Intersecting Adverse Outcome Pathways Based Pulmonary Fibrosis Prediction for Biocidal Mixtures

“…According to a recent study, cetylpyridinium chloride showed a potential to induce apoptosis in human lung cells [41]. However, this binary combination for further experimental studies was not included in a real combined exposure scenario database for household chemical and biocidal products developed in our previous meta-study results [20]. We demonstrated that substances regulating MIEs activated the following KE, according to the AOP.…”

“…Data Sets 2.1.1. Co-Exposure Biocide Data Collection Our previous meta-study [20], investigated real combined inhalation exposures to biocides including, 1733 real products containing two or more biocides marketed in South Korea. Of the 1733 products, except 130 duplicated combinations, we confirmed 768 combined exposure scenarios.…”

Potential health risks to disinfection workers from exposure to active substances in COVID-19 biocidal products

“…Additionally, previous studies have demonstrated a limited ability to detect health effects due to low-level chronic exposure and periodic high-level exposure among humans who mix, load, and apply pesticides [ 58 , 59 ]. An additional probable explanation might be that a questionnaire, as an indirect exposure assessment method, may not accurately reflect the situation may not provide an objective response to health effects ( Supplementary Material ) [ 16 ]. Thus, information obtained from research subjects in a survey on health impacts might be inaccurate due to reporting bias, which can be predicted as an underestimation [ 60 ].…”

“…Global regulations have been improved in recent years to protect human health and the environment from potentially harmful biocide products [ 16 ]. The European Union (EU) Biocide Product Regulation (BPR) and the Korea Household Chemicals and Biocide Safety Act (KBPR) were enacted to continuously improve and supplement the safe management of biocidal products [ 17 , 18 ].…”

Graphene Functionalized with Imidazole Derivatives as Nanotransducers for Electrochemically Detecting Isothiazolinone Biocides

“…Since August 2011, the pulmonary toxicity of biocidal agents, which may lead to severe lung injury, has emerged as a critical issue in South Korea . The presence of small amounts of biocides in humidifier disinfectants may lead pulmonary fibrosis, which has affected 7685 people and resulted in 1751 deaths, according to data published in March 2022 . Consequently, it is necessary to detect and identify biocidal agents in different products to reduce or eliminate the risk of injury or death.…”