| Title: | "Occurrence of and dermal exposure to benzene, toluene and styrene found in hand sanitizers from the United States" |
| Author(s): | Pal VK; Lee S; Naidu M; Lee C; Kannan K; |
| Address: | "Department of Pediatrics and Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, United States. Department of Pediatrics and Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, United States. Electronic address: Kurunthachalam.kannan@nyulangone.org" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107449 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1873-6750 (Electronic) 0160-4120 (Print) 0160-4120 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Human exposure to carcinogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as benzene, from hand sanitizers is a topic of current concern. In light of the heavy use of hand sanitizers during the COVID-19 pandemic, determination of exposure to toxicants present in these products deserves attention. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had set an interim limit for benzene in alcohol-based hand sanitizers at 2000 parts-per-billion (ppb). We determined the concentrations of and exposure to three VOCs namely, benzene, toluene and styrene, in 200 hand sanitizers using high-resolution gas chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC-HRMS). Benzene, toluene and styrene were found in 31%, 25% and 32%, respectively, of the samples analyzed at mean concentrations of 395 (range: 0.181-22,300), 164 (range: 0.074-20,700) and 61.3 ng/g (range: 0.082-4200 ng/g), respectively. Benzene was found at concentrations > 2000 ng/g (above the FDA interim limit) in 5% of the samples, representing 9 brands. The mean potential dermal exposure doses (DEDs) to benzene (children/teenagers: 34.6; adults: 24.7 ng/kg-bw/d) were higher than those for toluene (children/teenagers: 14.4; adults: 10.3 ng/kg-bw/d) and styrene (children/teenagers: 5.37; adults: 3.83 ng/kg-bw/d) in the 200 hand sanitizers analyzed. The estimated cancer risk from exposure to benzene in children/teenagers and adults from hand sanitizer use (at an estimated usage rate of 5 g/day) was greater than the one-in-a-million risk benchmark (1.0 x 10(-6)) for 10% and 9% of the samples, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to determine both the concentrations of and exposure risks to benzene, toluene and styrene present in hand sanitizers" |
| Keywords: | Adolescent Adult Benzene/analysis Benzene Derivatives/analysis *covid-19 Child *Hand Sanitizers Humans Pandemics Styrene/analysis Toluene/analysis United States *Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis Benzene Cancer risk Exposure Hand sanitizers Volatile org; |
| Notes: | "MedlinePal, Vineet Kumar Lee, Sunmi Naidu, Mrudula Lee, Conner Kannan, Kurunthachalam eng U2C ES026542/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Netherlands 2022/08/12 Environ Int. 2022 Sep; 167:107449. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107449. Epub 2022 Aug 4" |
