title: Short Communication: Is Ethanol-Based Hand Sanitizer Involved in Acute Pancreatitis after Excessive Disinfection?-An Evaluation with the Use of PBPK Model.
abstract: An occupational physician reported to the French Health Products Safety Agency (Afssaps) a case of adverse effect of acute pancreatitis (AP) in a teaching nurse, after multiple demonstrations with ethanol-based hand sanitizers (EBHSs) used in a classroom with defective mechanical ventilation. It was suggested by the occupational physician that the exposure to ethanol may have produced a significant blood ethanol concentration and subsequently the AP. In order to verify if the confinement situation due to defective mechanical ventilation could increase the systemic exposure to ethanol via inhalation route, a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling was used to predict ethanol blood levels. Under the worst case scenario, the simulation by PBPK modeling showed that the maximum blood ethanol concentration which can be predicted of 5.9 mg/l is of the same order of magnitude to endogenous ethanol concentration (mean = 1.1 mg/L; median = 0.4 mg/L; range = 0-35 mg/L) in nondrinker humans (Al-Awadhi et al., 2004). The present study does not support the likelihood that EBHS leads to an increase in systemic ethanol concentration high enough to provoke an acute pancreatitis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cosmetic, Biocide, and Tatoo Products, French Health Products Safety Agency (Afssaps), 143-147 Boulevard Anatole France, 93285 Saint-Denis Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huynh-Delerme
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Artigou
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bodin
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tardif
authors.forename: Ginette
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Charest-Tardif
authors.forename: Cécile
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Verdier
authors.forename: Nessryne
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sater
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ould-Elhkim
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Desmares