Macrocyclic-, polycyclic-, and nitro musks in cosmetics, household commodities and indoor dusts collected from Japan: Implications for their human exposure

• Macrocyclic musks have been used in a wide variety of cosmetics and commercial products in Japan.
• The short-term degradation of macrocyclic musks may be occurred in indoor environments.
• The dermal absorption is a major source of human exposure to synthetic musks.

This paper reported the occurrence and concentrations of macrocyclic-, polycyclic- and nitro musks in cosmetics and household commodities collected from Japan. The high concentrations and detection frequencies of Musk T, habanolide, and exaltolides were found in commercial products, suggesting their large amounts of production and usage in Japan. Polycyclic musks, HHCB and OTNE, also showed high concentrations in cosmetics and products. The estimated dairy intakes of Musk T and HHCB by the dermal exposure to commercial products were 7.8 and 7.9 μg/kg/day in human, respectively, and perfume and body lotion are dominant exposure sources. We also analyzed synthetic musks in house dusts. Polycyclic musks, HHCB and OTNE, showed high concentrations in samples, but macrocyclic musks were detected only in a few samples, although these types of musks were highly detected in commercial products. This is probably due to easy-degradation of macrocyclic musks in indoor environment. The dairy intakes of HHCB by dust ingestions were 0.22 ng/kg/day in human, which were approximately five orders of magnitudes lower than those of dermal absorption from commercial household commodities.

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