Human exposure and health risks to ultraviolet filters in personal care products marketed in China

Ultraviolet (UV) filters are emerging contaminants of great concern that are widely used in personal care products (PCPs). In this study, the concentrations of 15 UV filters in six types of PCP marketed in China were analyzed and the health risks posed by their internal and external exposure were evaluated. 2-ethylhexyl-4-methoxycinnamate (EHMC) presented the highest median concentration of 3150 ng/g in PCPs, followed by 2-ethylhexyl salicylate (109 ng/g) and octocrylene (OC, 95.1 ng/g). The total UV filter concentrations were considerably higher in sunscreens than other PCPs. Total external dermal exposure to UV filters in sunscreen was higher than the total estimated daily dietary intake of UV filters. A physiologically based toxicokinetic model to predict internal UV filter concentrations after sunscreen application for 1 d showed that EHMC had the highest predicted maximum concentration in venous blood at 0.0770 ng/mL, only one order of magnitude lower than the reference dose. The predicted maximum UV filter concentrations were higher for high-lipid-content tissues than venous blood, consistent with UV filters being lipophilic. OC, EHMC and homosalate made large contributions to the toxic activity assay results, and thus should receive more attention than other UV filters.