Background: Children's vulnerability to chemical toxicant exposures demands strong consideration of the chemical composition of products designed for and marketed toward them. Inadequacies in health-protective legislation and lack of mandatory ingredient disclosure in most children's products have created significant gaps in protection and oversight. Scientific literature can provide insight into the chemical constituency of children's products that may be useful for prioritizing future regulatory efforts.
Objective: We aimed to present a proof of concept for applying systematic evidence mapping methodology to identify which chemicals of potential concern have been reported in the scientific literature to be present in products marketed toward children, compile a compendium of data to inform future regulatory efforts, and identify research needs.
Methods: We conducted a broad, all-encompassing survey of the available literature from four databases to identify chemicals present in children's products. Using systematic evidence mapping methodologies, we constructed a database of children's products and their chemical constituents (termed "product-chemical combinations") based on a broad survey of current and relevant environmental health literature. Our study focused on chemicals listed on the California Safer Consumer Products Program's Candidate Chemicals List, which includes chemicals with one or more known hazard traits. We then conducted an exploratory data analysis of product category and product-chemical combination frequencies to identify common chemicals in specific products.
Results: Our systematic evidence mapping identified 206 potentially hazardous chemicals in children's products, 170 of which were found in toys. In total, we found 1,528 distinct product-chemical combinations; 582 product-chemical combinations included chemicals known to be hazardous or potentially hazardous. Ortho-phthalates in plastic toys, parabens in children's creams and lotions, and bisphenols in both baby bottles and teethers were the most frequently encountered product-chemical combinations of potential concern.
Discussion: The frequently reported presence of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in multiple types of children's products raises concerns for aggregate exposures and reveals gaps in regulatory protections for this sensitive subpopulation. Our reproducible and systematic evidence-based approach serves as a case study that can guide other prioritization efforts for transparent regulatory action aimed at improving the safety of chemicals in consumer products. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP15394.
Background: Cumulative risk assessment (CRA) is key to characterizing health risks in fenceline and disadvantaged communities, which face environmental pollution and challenging socioeconomic conditions. Traditional approaches for inclusion of mixtures in CRA are limited and only assess the most sensitive target organ system for each chemical.
Methods: We developed an expanded approach to cumulative risk assessment that considers all known target organ systems associated with a chemical. Specifically, we created a multi-effects toxicity database by a) compiling toxicological and epidemiological data from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's (ATSDR) Toxicological Profiles and the Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) CompTox Chemicals Dashboard; b) developing a tiering system to prioritize identified data for use in developing toxicity values; and c) accounting for uncertainty to create toxicity values for additional target organ systems. We demonstrated differences between the traditional approach and our expanded approach by using state-of-the-art mobile monitoring data from our Southeastern Pennsylvania Hazardous Air Pollutant Monitoring and Assessment Project (SEPA HAP-MAP) to conduct a cumulative risk assessment.
Results: Of the 32 chemicals quantified in SEPA HAP-MAP, 28 were represented in our multi-effects toxicity database, whereas only 16 were included using a traditional approach. In total, we derived toxicity values for 172 chemical-target organ system combinations. Our expanded approach found neurological, renal, respiratory, endocrine, and systemic risks (hazard index ) in SEPA HAP-MAP fenceline communities, whereas no risks were identified using a traditional approach limited to the most sensitive target organ systems only.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that traditional approaches to CRA underestimate health risks in fenceline and other highly exposed communities and highlight the need for improved methods to inform health-protective and just risk management decisions. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP14696.
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