Estimating mouthing exposure to chemicals in children's products
Aurisano N, Fantke P, Huang L, Jolliet O (2022). Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology.
What they found
The authors built a model to predict how chemicals migrate from children's products into saliva during mouthing. Predictions matched lab data well (R² = 0.85). Migration ranged from 8 × 10^-7 to 32.7 µg per 10 cm² per minute, highest for plasticisers in PVC, and mouthing doses ranged from a median of 0.005 to 253 µg/kg body weight per day across chemicals and materials.
- What it can't tell you
- Model-based screening built on existing migration data, which cover few chemicals; predictions for untested chemical-material pairs are uncertain. Mouthing time and product counts are assumed. Hazard quotients flag priorities; they do not show harm in children.
- Funding
- UN Environment SAICM project (GEF ID 9771) and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (SafeChem project); authors declare no conflicts (Jolliet discloses a USEtox Center advisory-board seat and chairing a Life Cycle Initiative guidance project).
- Topics
- Baby and kids, Chemicals
- Checked against
- Abstract (Europe PMC, PMID 34188178); funding and COI from open-access full text (PMC8770116)