Measured concentrations of consumer product chemicals in California house dust: Implications for sources, exposure, and toxicity potential

Abstract

Household dust is a reservoir of various consumer product chemicals. Thus, characterizing comprehensive chemical profiles of house dust may help improve our understanding of residential chemical exposure. We have previously developed a method for detecting a broad spectrum of chemicals in dust by applying a combination of target, suspect screening, and non‐target methods with mass spectrometry preceded by liquid chromatography and gas chromatography. Building upon a previous study that detected 271 compounds in 38 dust samples, we presented concentrations of 144 compounds that were confirmed and quantified by standards in the same set of samples. Ten compounds were measured with median concentrations greater than 10 000 ng/g of dust: cis‐hexadec‐6‐enoic acid, squalene, cholesterol, vitamin E, bis(2‐ethylhexyl) phthalate, dioctyl terephthalate, linoleic acid, tricaprylin, tris(1‐chloroisopropyl) phosphate, and oxybenzone. We also reviewed in vitro toxicity screening data to identify compounds that were not previously detected in indoor dust but have potential for adverse health effects. Among 119 newly detected compounds, 13 had endocrine‐disrupting potential and 7 had neurotoxic potential. Toxicity screening data were not available for eight biocides, which may adversely affect health. Our results strive to provide more comprehensive chemical profiles of house dust and identified information gaps for future health studies.

Temporal variability of indoor dust concentrations of semivolatile organic compounds

“…To find the most common and primary use category of studied compounds, werelied on use categorization in the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Consumer Product Chemical Profiles database 41 and the US National Library of Medicine's Household Product Database. Details of use categorization are available elsewhere 39 . The selected compounds include ultraviolet [UV] filters, fragrances, and other ingredients of personal care products (PCPs); insecticide ingredients; and a variety of other compounds widely detected in homes (phenols, phthalates, other plasticizers, PAHs, and skin oils, those lipids found in the skin such as squalene).We excluded 11 compounds used as flame retardants from this analysis because replacing couches would affect dust concentrations of flame retardants.…”

“…We used a target compound list developed through a project looking at widely detected compounds in household dust, 39,40 including new compounds, originally detected through suspect screening or nontarget identification with high-resolution mass spectrometry, for which we subsequently obtained standards. Using this expanded target compound list, we analyzed all compounds that were previously detected in dust via gas chromatography (GC).…”

“…Details of use categorization are available elsewhere. 39 The selected compounds include ultraviolet [UV] filters, fragrances, and other ingredients of personal care products (PCPs); insecticide ingredients; and a variety of other compounds widely detected in homes (phenols, phthalates, other plasticizers, PAHs, and skin oils, those lipids found in the skin such as squalene).We excluded 11 compounds used as flame retardants from this analysis because replacing couches would affect dust concentrations of flame retardants. The selected compounds represent a range of chemical properties, ranging from relatively volatile compounds (eg, dimethyl phthalate [DMP]) to those with a high tendency to partition to dust (eg, DEHP).…”

“…Details of the analytical methods and settings are found elsewhere. 39,40 Briefly, we quantified concentrations of 47 compounds using GC quadrupole time-of-flight(Q/TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) at UC Davis. Analysis was carried out on an Agilent 7890B gas chromatograph with a HP-5MS (30 m × 0.25 mm, 0.25 μm) column coupled to an Agilent Q/TOF 7200B instrument running in electron ionization (EI) mode.…”

Regulating PFAS as a Chemical Class under the California Safer Consumer Products Program

“…PFAAs and some of their precursors are widespread in the environment, including in air (Kim and Kannan 2007;Muir et al 2019;Wang et al 2019), dust (Haug et al 2011;Eriksson and Kärrman 2015;Yao et al 2018;Shin et al 2020), wastewater treatment plant effluent (Hamid and Li 2016;Wang et al 2016;Houtz et al 2016;H Chen et al 2017), biosolids (Letcher et al 2020;Kim Lazcano et al 2020), soil (Rankin et al 2016;Dalahmeh et al 2018;Muir et al 2019;Washington et al 2019), snow (Kim and Kannan 2007;Kirchgeorg et al 2016), inland and ocean waters (Prevedouros et al 2006;Zhao et al 2012;Wang et al 2016;Muir et al 2019), drinking water (Gellrich et al 2013;Wang et al 2016;Boone et al 2019), and human foods (Pérez et al 2014;Gebbink et al 2015;Domingo and Nadal 2017;Christensen et al 2017;EFSA CONTAM Panel et al 2018). As a result, human (Cariou et al 2015;Calafat et al 2007;Chang et al 2014;Fraser et al 2013;Kang et al 2016;Monroy et al 2008;OECD 2013;Olsen et al 2007b;Tao et al 2008a…”