Human biomonitoring in urine samples from the Environmental Specimen Bank reveals a decreasing trend over time in the exposure to the fragrance chemical lysmeral from 2000 to 2018

Prioritization of chemicals in personal care products based on persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) potential: An Indian perspective

Numerous organic ingredients present in Personal care products (PCPs) are being detected in sewage which has a high potential to impact the environment. These compounds are called as Emerging contaminants (ECs) or Contaminants of emerging concern. However, the information on the source and occurrence of ECs present in PCPs is very minimal. Specifically, information on the persistence (P), bioaccumulation (B) and toxicity (T) is very scarce. The determination of PBT properties is a complex task given the magnitude of chemicals, thus it is necessary to have a tool to quickly screen and prioritize the most important compounds. Estimation Program Interface (EPI) Suite™ is one such tool authorized by United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) for screening purposes. In the present study, several organic compounds present in the PCPs viz. body lotion, sunscreens, moisturizers, hair dyes, and some hair care products were identified and their PBT property was estimated. The results from the study indicate that the order of increasing occurrence of PBT chemicals is sunscreens > moisturizers > body lotion > hair care products > hair dyes. The prioritized compounds were given rank 1 (maximum concern) to rank 4 (minimum concern). From the results, the compounds octocrylene in sunscreens and butylphenyl methylpropional in body lotions were prioritized as Rank 1.

Contaminants of emerging concern in urine: a review of analytical methods for determining diisocyanates, benzotriazoles, benzothiazoles, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, isothiazolinones, fragrances, and non-phthalate plasticizers

Human biomonitoring (HBM) frameworks assess human exposure to hazardous chemicals. In this review, we discuss and summarize sample preparation procedures and analytical methodology for six groups of chemicals of emerging concern (CECs), namely diisocyanates, benzotriazoles, benzothiazoles, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, isothiazolinones, fragrances, and non-phthalate plasticizers, which are increasingly detected in urine, however, are not yet widely included in HBM schemes, despite posing a risk to human health. The sample preparation procedures depend largely on the chemical group; however, solid-phase extraction (SPE) is most often used due to the minimized sample handling, lower sample volume, and generally achieving lower limits of quantification (LOQs) compared to other extraction techniques. In terms of sample analysis, LC-based methods generally achieve lower limits of quantification (LOQs) compared to GC-based methods for the selected six groups of chemicals owing to their broader chemical coverage. In conclusion, since these chemicals are expected to be more frequently included in future HBM studies, it becomes evident that there is a pressing need for rigorous quality assurance programs to ensure better comparability of data. These programs should include the reporting of measurement uncertainty and facilitate inter-laboratory comparisons among the reporting laboratories. In addition, high-resolution mass spectrometry should be more commonly employed to enhance the specificity and selectivity of the applied analytical methodology since it is underrepresented in HBM. Furthermore, due to the scarcity of data on the levels of these CECs in urine, large population HBM studies are necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the associated risks.

Monitoring the exposure to ethoxyquin between 2000 and 2021 in urine samples from the German Environmental Specimen Bank

Human Biomonitoring (HBM) of emerging chemicals gained increasing attention within the EU in recent years. After evaluating the metabolism, we established a new HBM method for ethoxyquin (EQ), a feed additive, which was banned in 2017 due to concerns regarding the possible exposure of the general population to it and its highly toxic precursor p-phenetidine. The method was applied to 250 urine samples from the Environmental Specimen Bank collected between 2000 and 2021. The major metabolite EQI was quantified in the majority of the study samples illustrating the ubiquitous exposure of the non-occupationally exposed population. A rather constant exposure was observed until 2016 with a significant decline from 2016 to 2021. This drop falls within the EU wide ban of the chemical as a feed additive from June 2017 which led to a gradual removal until its complete suspension in June 2020. The daily intake (DI) was evaluated with respect to the reported derived no-effect level (DNEL) to estimate the potential health risks from EQ exposure. The median DI of 0.0181 µg/kg bw/d corresponds to only 0.01 % of the DNEL. Even the observed maxima up to 13.1 µg/kg bw/d only accounted for 10 % of the DNEL. Nevertheless, the values suggest a general exposure with the risk of higher burden in a low fraction of the population. In regard to the EQ associated intake of the carcinogen and suspected mutagen p-phenetidine, this level of exposure cannot be evaluated as safe. The recent decrease and the broad exposure substantiate the need for future HBM campaigns in population representative studies to further investigate the observed reductions, potentially find highly exposed subgroups and clarify the impact of the ban as feed additive on EQ exposure.

Lysmeral Exposure in Children and Adolescences Participating in the German Environmental Survey (2012-2015): Integrating Sex/Gender into Analysis

Comprehensive consideration of the biological and social diversities of sex and gender as well as their interdependencies is mostly missing in human biomonitoring (HBM) studies. Using the INGER sex/gender concept as theoretical background, we analyzed differences in exposure to lysmeral, a compound commonly found as a fragrance in cosmetics, personal care, and household products, in 2294 children and adolescents in Germany using decision tree, regression, and mediation analysis. The variables "sex assigned at birth" and "age", as well as well as use of personal care products and fabric conditioner proved to have the highest explanatory value. Mediating effects of behaviour associated with societal gender expectations were observed, as the use of cosmetics correlated highly with lysmeral metabolites concentrations in girls between 6 and 17 years, with the strongest effect in adolescents between 14 and 17 years old. In the youngest age group (3-5 years) boys showed higher concentration of the metabolite tert-butylbenzoic acid (TBBA) compared to girls of the same age but only if TBBA urine concentrations were normalized on creatinine. Our study offers the first retrospective sex/gender assessment of HBM data. It demonstrates the possibilities to rethink and broaden sex/gender analysis in existing HBM-studies and highlights the need for inclusion of new sex/gender concepts in the design of new studies.

Human Biomonitoring Data in Health Risk Assessments Published in Peer-Reviewed Journals between 2016 and 2021: Confronting Reality after a Preliminary Review

Human biomonitoring (HBM) is a rapidly developing field that is emphasized as an important approach for the assessment of health risks. However, its value for health risk assessment (HRA) remains to be clarified. We performed a review of publications concerned with applications of HBM in the assessment of health risks. The selection of publications for this review was limited by the search engines used (only PubMed and Scopus) and a timeframe of the last five years. The review focused on the clarity of 10 HRA elements, which influence the quality of HRA. We show that the usage of HBM data in HRA is limited and unclear. Primarily, the key HRA elements are not consistently applied or followed when using HBM in such assessments, and secondly, there are inconsistencies regarding the understanding of fundamental risk analysis principles and good practices in risk analysis. Our recommendations are as follows: (i) potential usage of HBM data in HRA should not be non-critically overestimated but rather limited and aligned to a specific value for exposure assessment or for the interpretation of health damage; (ii) improvements to HRA approaches, using HBM information or not, are needed and should strictly follow theoretical foundations of risk analysis.

Time trend of the exposure to geraniol in 24-h urine samples derived from the German Environmental Specimen Bank from 2004 to 2018

Geraniol (trans-3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadiene-1-ol) is an acyclic isoprenoid monoterpene with a widespread use as fragrance in consumer products, agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. The class of terpene chemicals has been associated with varying sensitizing potencies. A recently developed sensitive LC- MS/MS method for the analysis of geraniol metabolites was further improved and validated for the two metabolites, 8-carboxygeraniol and Hildebrandt acid. The successfully validated method was applied to 250 urine samples derived from the Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB) collected between 2004 and 2018. Both metabolites of this allergen of special concern were quantified in all urine samples of this study. Correlation analysis revealed that 8-carboxygeraniol appears to be the sole specific biomarker in urine for geraniol exposure. Overall, the excreted amounts of 8-carboxygeraniol remained unchanged in urine samples collected from 2004 to 2018. However, a significantly higher 8-carboxygeraniol excretion per 24 h was observed in females compared to males across the sampling years from 2004 to 2012. This trend equalized in the years 2015 and 2018. We could demonstrate that 8-carboxygeraniol may be a suited biomarker for assessing the geraniol exposure in the general population. Regardless of the fact that additional, preferably population representative studies combining HBM and health examination were helpful to further elucidate the risks of a geraniol exposure, the current study adds important data for identifying time trends and body burden of geraniol in the environment and shows the ubiquitous exposure towards mixtures of sensitizing chemicals.