Inventory of possible endocrine disrupting chemicals used in cosmetic products

There is a concern on the safety of cosmetic ingredients and their endocrine-disrupting (ED) potential. Frequent use as well as the use of a diverse range of cosmetics pose a concern for a potential health risk via aggregate exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). In this study, a list of ingredients available in cosmetic products that were recently introduced to the Dutch market was retrieved from the commercially accessible Mintel database and screened for the presence of EDCs. To achieve this, a workflow was developed to crosscheck the list of cosmetic ingredients with information on potential EDCs derived from open-source initiatives (i.e. chemical lists from the European Chemicals Agency, national authorities, and non-governmental organizations). Using this workflow, 27 chemicals were identified that were categorized as "indications for ED properties" and one chemical as "no concern for ED properties" out of the 890 cosmetic ingredients reviewed. For one of these chemicals, geraniol, a preliminary safety assessment was performed. Aggregated exposure to geraniol via cosmetics was modeled using PACEMweb and compared to the lowest observed adverse effect level on thyroid histopathology derived from an extended-one-generation study. This exercise showed that, based on the current information available, geraniol can be used safely in cosmetics with regard to endocrine-related health risks. Next, the cosmetic ingredients that are currently not identified as an EDC (i.e. not present on one of the crosschecked lists, n = 862), were prioritized based on an aggregate exposure score for further screening of their endocrine disrupting properties (n = 58). For eight out of the 58 prioritized chemicals data retrieved from a literature search indicated an endocrine-mediated relationship, and were categorized as "limited indications of ED properties". Overall, the developed workflow is a useful tool to screen cosmetics for the presence of potential EDCs and to prioritize chemicals for further evaluation of their ED properties, as well as assessment of their safe use in cosmetics.