A comprehensive risk assessment of toxic elements in international brands of face foundation powders

Abstract

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and wearing masks in many countries, women are keen on elegance, beauty and the use of face foundations. Assessment of health risks associated with the regular use of face foundation by females is dynamic due to the emerging products. The most common international 14 brands of face foundation powders were collected and the concentrations of different elements (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, P, Pb, Sb, Se, Sn, V and Zn) in each sample were determined. A combined approach merging the conventional and computational tools was used for investigating the risk of exposure to toxic elements. Monte Carlo simulations were applied to calculate risks associated with twenty elements. We attempted different probability distribution functions for concentrations because the actual distribution functions are not known, and the only data available are the mean value and standard deviation of concentrations obtained from experiment. Our results indicate that the total non-carcinogenic health risk through exposure to different elements (Hazardous Index, HI) does not strongly depend on the choice of the probability distribution function for the concentrations. We also show that taking into account probability distributions of other variables and parameters such as body weight, exposed skin area, skin adhesion, etc. does not significantly change the main result rather just slightly broadening the final Hazardous Index distribution function. We found that calculated HI is well below unity for all considered samples, i.e., the dermal exposure to toxic elements in the considered facial powders is negligible and the considered face foundation powders are quite safe to use.

Evaluation of the Levels of Hydroquinone and Health Risk Assessment of Toxic Metals in Skin-Whitening Creams

“…The non-carcinogenic; Hazard Quotient (HQ) and Hazard Index (HI) and carcinogenic risks were evaluated to determine the health risk of long term application of the sampled whitening creams. The result of Hazard Quotient (HQ) and Hazard Index (HI) are presented in Table 4 while that of carcinogenic is presented in Table 7.The HQ and HI values for all the metals are less than 1 and below the risk limit, indicating that no noncarcinogenic risk can occur on long term use.This is similar to the result of Shomar and Rashkeev, [25], Arsdad et al, [24], Mansouri et al, [26] and Khalili et al, [27].The carcinogenic risk (CR) assessment of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb for adults was calculated and the result is presented in Table 5.The CR of all the metals considered is below the acceptable range (1.0E-06 to 1.0E-04), so poses no carcinogenic risk except the CR for Cd in samples 2, 3, and 4. The CR of Cd in samples 2, 3, and 4 are higher than the acceptable range, similar to the report of Lim et al, [39] and Surajo et al, [40] for cosmetic products.…”

Sustainable changes in beauty market trends focused on the perspective of safety in the post‐coronavirus disease‐19 period

“…Nevertheless, women do not stop wearing basic makeup and color makeup to maintain their beauty. 15 Previously, the trend of the beauty market paid attention to “adding” ingredients, but after COVID‐19, it was converted to “free from,” which is a new feature of the beauty market. As customers change their perception, sourcing of raw materials for products, manufacturing processes, and product experiments beyond ingredients have become a new important part of Clean Beauty, from carbon emission, minimization of water use, recycling of product containers, and reduction of waste.…”

“…In many countries, mask wear has increased due to the COVID‐19 epidemic and other reasons. Nevertheless, women do not stop wearing basic makeup and color makeup to maintain their beauty 15 . Previously, the trend of the beauty market paid attention to “adding” ingredients, but after COVID‐19, it was converted to “free from,” which is a new feature of the beauty market.…”

Evaluation of bee pollen from different botanical sources with elemental analysis

“…): THQ=(CxDPC/BW)/RfD Where C represents the potentially toxic element content in pollens (mg kg -1 dry weight); DPC (daily pollen consumption) was calculated at 40 g for adults and 20 g for children; BW (average body weight): 15 kg for children and 70 kg for adults (Zafeiraki et al, 2022). The RfD limit values of Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, and Cd were as follows: 1.5, 0.14, 0.7, 0.0003, 0.02, 0.04, 0.3, 0.005 and 0.001 mg kg −1 BW (Shomar and Rashkeev, 2021). When the THQ value is less than 1, it is considered safe for consumers exposed to this product.…”