Evaluation of the effect of skin cleaning procedures on the dermal absorption of chemicals

- The effectiveness of two skin cleaning techniques after exposure to chemicals was investigated.
- The penetration through, but also the accumulation in the skin should be considered for risk assessment of chemicals.
- Skin cleaning with water reduces the penetration of hydrofluoric acid through and its deposition in the skin.
- The presented cleaning protocol could serve as an approach in the standardization of ex vivo skin decontamination studies.

To reduce the internal exposure, skin decontamination is the most important measure after dermal contact to chemicals. However, no harmonized skin cleaning procedure for experimental ex vivo studies is published. In our study, the impact of two skin cleaning techniques on dermal penetration kinetics and intradermal deposition of 1,4-dioxane, 5% hydrofluoric acid (HF, detected in terms of fluoride ions), and anisole was evaluated to develop a reliable ex vivo skin cleaning method using the diffusion cell technique. After exposure (duration: 3 min (HF); 1 h (1,4-dioxane and anisole)) of excised human skin (n = 6-8) decontamination was performed by (I) water-soaked cotton swabs or (II) direct application of water on the exposure area. The effect of skin cleaning was investigated by analysing the concentration time course of chemicals in the receptor fluid of diffusion cells and by determining the deposition in skin. Both skin cleaning procedures reduced the amount of fluoride in the skin compartments (p < 0.05) and the receptor fluid (p < 0.1). However, the effect of cleaning on the dermal absorption of the organic test compounds was not significant. The results demonstrate the suitability of the applied ex vivo protocol for investigating the effectiveness of skin cleaning measures following dermal exposure. In addition, data reveal that the determination of test compounds in both, skin compartments as well as receptor fluid as equivalent for the systemic uptake needs to be considered in studies assessing the effectiveness of skin decontamination procedures.