Incorporating Singaporean habits and practices for cosmetics and personal care products into a global consumer aggregate exposure model.

Abstract

Understanding consumer habits and practices of cosmetics and personal care products (PCP) is essential to generate realistic product exposure data for the safety assessment of ingredients such as fragrance materials. Product usages can vary across regions due to differences in cultural norms, seasonal and climate conditions, and the availability of different product forms, yet there is limited data published on cosmetics and PCP use outside of North America and Europe. This study reports the habits and practices of cosmetics and PCP (such as frequency and amount of use) in Singapore where participants (n=494, aged 21-64 years) recorded their product usages and had their products weighed over a two-week period. Overall, similar use patterns were observed across demographic groups within the Singapore population for most of the products surveyed, as were the expected usage amounts. Additionally, the Singaporean dataset was mapped onto the Creme-RIFM aggregate exposure model to assess exposure estimates. Preliminary comparisons with product exposures observed in the United States (US) and Europe suggest that exposures in Singapore are comparable. Findings from this study will contribute to the Creme-RIFM model, expanding its geographic scope and applicability for the global safety assessment of fragrance ingredients and fragranced products.