title: Occupational exposure to synthetic musks in barbershops, compared with the common exposure in the dormitories and households.
abstract: Synthetic musks (SMs) have been widely used as fragrance ingredients in personal care and sanitary commodities. Due to their high volatility and particle-binding affinity, the indoor dust is a major reservoir of SMs, and dust ingestion could be an important exposure way to special populations, such as hairdressers. In spite of the known toxicity of SMs, there is no information regarding the occurrence of SMs in barbershop dusts and the exposure of hairdressers through indoor dust ingestion. In the present study, the levels of two nitro musks and five polycyclic musks were measured from indoor dust samples collected from barbershops, and some other indoor dust samples were also collected from dormitories, bathhouses and households for comparison. The concentrations of ∑SMs in barbershop dusts were 10-100 times higher than those from the other three indoor microenvironments. Polycyclic musks accounted for 89.4% of ∑SMs on average in all samples, of which two compounds, HHCB and AHTN jointly dominated 97.9% of polycyclic musks. The levels of HHCB and AHTN varied from 12.2 to 8.39×10(5) and from 13.2 to 3.49×10(5) ng g(-1), respectively. The daily intakes (DIs) of ∑SMs through house dust ingestion were estimated using the model of high dust ingestion and worst-case exposure (P95), and the corresponding exposure rates were 2791, 135 and 727 ng d(-1) for the hairdressers, general population and toddlers. SMs were also detected in blood samples collected from the hairdressers and normal adults (n=50 and 10, respectively). There was no significant difference between these two groups. Despite the absence of higher SM concentrations in hairdresser's blood, we should not overlook the potential occupational health risks due to their high SMs ingestion rate.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Nannan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yali
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Wenhui
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yaqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001461:Barbering; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004391:Dust / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005229:Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006798:Housing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009812:Odorants / Q000032:analysis*; D010476:Perfume / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D014495:Universities
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D004391:Dust; D005229:Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated; D010476:Perfume; C008563:musk
keywords: Barbershops; Blood; Indoor dust; Occupational exposures; Synthetic musks