Inventory of possible endocrine disrupting chemicals used in cosmetic products

There is a concern on the safety of cosmetic ingredients and their endocrine-disrupting (ED) potential. Frequent use as well as the use of a diverse range of cosmetics pose a concern for a potential health risk via aggregate exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). In this study, a list of ingredients available in cosmetic products that were recently introduced to the Dutch market was retrieved from the commercially accessible Mintel database and screened for the presence of EDCs. To achieve this, a workflow was developed to crosscheck the list of cosmetic ingredients with information on potential EDCs derived from open-source initiatives (i.e. chemical lists from the European Chemicals Agency, national authorities, and non-governmental organizations). Using this workflow, 27 chemicals were identified that were categorized as “indications for ED properties” and one chemical as “no concern for ED properties” out of the 890 cosmetic ingredients reviewed. For one of these chemicals, geraniol, a preliminary safety assessment was performed. Aggregated exposure to geraniol via cosmetics was modeled using PACEMweb and compared to the lowest observed adverse effect level on thyroid histopathology derived from an extended-one-generation study. This exercise showed that, based on the current information available, geraniol can be used safely in cosmetics with regard to endocrine-related health risks. Next, the cosmetic ingredients that are currently not identified as an EDC (i.e. not present on one of the crosschecked lists, <i>n</i> = 862), were prioritized based on an aggregate exposure score for further screening of their endocrine disrupting properties (<i>n</i> = 58). For eight out of the 58 prioritized chemicals data retrieved from a literature search indicated an endocrine-mediated relationship, and were categorized as “limited indications of ED properties”. Overall, the developed workflow is a useful tool to screen cosmetics for the presence of potential EDCs and to prioritize chemicals for further evaluation of their ED properties, as well as assessment of their safe use in cosmetics.

当前，化妆品原料的安全性及其内分泌干扰（endocrine-disrupting, ED）潜能备受关注。频繁使用以及品类繁多的化妆品，会通过内分泌干扰物（endocrine disrupting chemicals, EDCs）的累积暴露带来潜在健康风险，由此引发广泛的安全担忧。本研究从商用可获取的明特尔（Mintel）数据库中，调取了近期投放至荷兰市场的化妆品原料清单，并针对其中是否存在EDCs开展筛查。为此，本研究开发了一套工作流程，将化妆品原料清单与源自各类开源项目的潜在EDCs相关信息进行交叉核验——这些信息涵盖欧洲化学品管理局、各国主管部门及非政府组织发布的化学品清单。依托该工作流程，在被审核的890种化妆品原料中，共鉴定出27种被归类为“具有内分泌干扰特性的指征”，另有1种被归类为“无内分泌干扰安全性担忧”。针对其中的香叶醇（geraniol），本研究开展了初步安全性评估：采用PACEMweb模型模拟化妆品中香叶醇的累积暴露量，并与一代延长染毒试验中得到的甲状腺组织病理学最低观察到有害作用水平（lowest observed adverse effect level）进行对比。本次评估结果显示，基于现有可用数据，从内分泌相关健康风险角度来看，香叶醇可安全应用于化妆品中。随后，研究团队对目前未被鉴定为EDCs的化妆品原料（即未出现在上述交叉核验清单中的原料，*n* = 862），基于累积暴露评分进行优先级排序，以进一步筛查其内分泌干扰特性，最终确定58种待评估原料（*n* = 58）。在这58种优先级原料中，有8种经文献检索获取的数据显示存在内分泌介导的关联，因此被归类为“具有内分泌干扰特性的有限指征”。总体而言，本研究开发的工作流程是一款实用工具，既可用于筛查化妆品中潜在EDCs的存在情况，也可为后续评估化学品的ED特性及其在化妆品中的安全使用提供优先级排序支持。