A framework for prioritizing fragrance materials for aquatic risk assessment

Area of Science:

• Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology
• Risk Assessment of Consumer Product Ingredients

Background:

• Over 2,100 fragrance ingredients are listed in the Research Institute of Fragrance Materials/Flavor and Extract Manufacturers' Association (RIFM/FEMA) Database.
• Prioritizing these chemicals for aquatic risk assessment is crucial for consumer product safety and environmental protection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a tiered, risk-based screening approach for prioritizing fragrance materials for aquatic risk assessment.
• To evaluate the environmental risk of over 2,100 fragrance ingredients using predicted environmental concentrations (PEC) and predicted no-effect concentrations (PNEC).

Main Methods:

• Estimated PEC based on physicochemical properties and usage volume.
• Predicted aquatic toxicity using general quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) to derive PNEC with a conservative assessment factor (AF).
• Refined PNEC using specific QSAR models (ECOSAR) for materials with PEC:PNEC ratios > 1.

Main Results:

• In the first tier, 26.5% (568/2,141) of fragrance materials had PEC:PNEC ratios > 1.
• Using ECOSAR, this percentage decreased significantly to 7.7% (164 materials).
• Comparisons with measured data confirmed the framework's conservatism and low risk of Type I errors.

Conclusions:

• The developed tiered approach effectively prioritizes a large number of fragrance materials for aquatic risk assessment.
• The screening approach is precautionary, demonstrating low environmental risk for most fragrance ingredients at current use levels.
• This method allows efficient prioritization without requiring extensive experimental ecotoxicological or fate data.