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Dermal Uptake of Organic Vapors Commonly Found in Indoor Air
journal contribution
posted on 2014-01-21, 00:00 authored by Charles J. Weschler, William W NazaroffTransdermal
uptake directly from air is a potentially important
yet largely overlooked pathway for human exposure to organic vapors
indoors. We recently reported (Indoor Air 2012, 22, 356) that transdermal uptake directly from
air could be comparable to or larger than intake via inhalation for
many semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs). Here, we extend that
analysis to approximately eighty organic compounds that (a) occur
commonly indoors and (b) are primarily in the gas-phase rather than
being associated with particles. For some compounds, the modeled ratio
of dermal-to-inhalation uptake is large. In this group are common
parabens, lower molecular weight phthalates, o-phenylphenol, Texanol,
ethylene glycol, and α-terpineol. For other compounds, estimated
dermal uptakes are small compared to inhalation. Examples include
aliphatic hydrocarbons, single ring aromatics, terpenes, chlorinated
solvents, formaldehyde, and acrolein. Analysis of published experimental
data for human subjects for twenty different organic compounds substantiates
these model predictions. However, transdermal uptake rates from air
have not been measured for the indoor organics that have the largest
modeled ratios of dermal-to-inhalation uptake; for such compounds,
the estimates reported here require experimental verification. In
accounting for total exposure to indoor organic pollutants and in
assessing potential health consequences of such exposures, it is important
to consider direct transdermal absorption from air.