Insights of Human Exposure and Dermal Uptake to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances from Domestic Cosmetics and Personal Care Products in China

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are synthetic chemicals reported in daily supplies, and skin absorption is one of the routes for human exposure to PFASs. This study aims to evaluate the potential risks of PFASs exposure to humans from cosmetics and personal care products. Initially, a random sampling of 44 domestic cosmetics and personal care products was conducted to investigate the concentrations of 24 PFASs. PFASs concentrations were lower than 100 ng/g in 86.4% of products, and PFCAs and PAPs were dominant. Notably, the presence of perfluoropropoxy propanoic acid (Gen X, the alternative of PFOA) was noteworthy. Furthermore, in vitro skin absorption experiments were performed using excised porcine skin to predict the skin absorption of PFASs to human, and the absorption rates of the measured 6 PFASs ranged from 29.5%~82.8%. Finally, on the basis of the above experimental results and creatively determining the skin absorption rates of PFASs separately based on the Lipinski’s rule of 5, the daily exposure dose (DED) of ∑PFASs from skin exposure through cosmetics and personal care products was evaluated to be 2.17 ng/kg-bw/day. Conclusively, this study emphasizes that cosmetics and personal care products are important sources leading to the PFASs skin exposure.