Now, a novel way to quantify fragrance allergens found in baby bathwater
July 18th, 2009 - 12:11 pm ICT by ANIWashington, July 18 (ANI): Scientists at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) have devised a way to quantify the fragrance allergens found in baby bathwater.
The researchers say that they analysed real samples, and detected up to 15 allergen compounds in cosmetics and personal hygiene products.
They say that their method can detect and quantify the 15 most common fragrance allergens included in soap, gel, cologne, and other personal hygiene products.
“Applying the method to eight real samples obtained from the daily baths of a series of babies aged between six months and two years old, we discovered the presence of all the compounds under study in at least one of the samples,” co-author of the study published this month in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, Maria Llompart, explained to SINC.
The scientists have revealed that they found at least six of the 15 compounds in all the samples.
In some cases, they say, concentrations were “extremely high”.
According to them, some of the substances that appeared were benzyl salicylate, linalol, coumarin, and hydroxycitronellal.
“The presence and levels of these chemical agents in bathwater should be cause for concern, bearing in mind that babies spend up to 15 minutes or more a day playing in the bath and that they can absorb these and other chemicals not only through their skin, but also by inhalation and often ingestion, intentional or not,” Llompart said.
The researchers say that the high level of sensitivity of the method made it possible for them to detect the allergens.
They claim that their method is the first to apply the Solid-Phase Micro Extraction (SPME) technique to determining the ingredients of cosmetics and child hygiene products.
The team say that this technique makes it possible to concentrate and isolate chemical components from a sample by absorbing them into fibres with a certain coating.
The researchers have also employed gas chromatography to separate compounds, and mass spectrometry to identify and measure the abundance of each of the fragrances. (ANI)
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Tags: 15 minutes, allergen, allergens, analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, baths, bearing, chemical components, co author, cologne, compounds, coumarin, fibres, fragrance, ingestion, inhalation, personal hygiene products, salicylate, santiago de compostela, soap gel, university of santiago