Targeted investigation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances from domestic cosmetics and personal care products in China and its implications for human exposure

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 risk of PFASs exposure from cosmetics and personal care products in China. A random sampling of 44 domestic cosmetics and personal care products, summarized into 6 categories, was conducted to investigate the concentrations of 24 target PFASs. PFASs concentrations of 86.4 % products were lower than 100 ng/g, and 34.2 % products were lower than 10 ng/g. PFCAs and PAPs were dominant. Keywords of "wear-resistant" and "long-lasting" may indicate the presence of PFASs in products. Disabled PFOA, PFOS, and PFHxS were not detected. Notably, the presence of PFHxA should be of concern, and its detection frequency reached 59.1 %, with the maximum concentration of 1274.77 ng/g. Further, the daily exposure dose (DED) of & sum;PFASs from skin exposure through cosmetics and personal care products was evaluated to be 3.01 ng/kg-bw/day, which wasn't negligible compared to the prescribed acceptable intake value. Conclusively, this study emphasizes that cosmetics and personal care products are important sources leading to the PFASs skin exposure and provides a basis for future regulation of PFASs as product additive.