School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250100, China; Suzhou Institute of Shandong University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China.
Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1206 W Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2018 Jan 15;612:415-421. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.08.175. Epub 2017 Sep 1.
Organosilicon surfactants are the most potent adjuvants available for formulating and applying agricultural pesticides and fertilizers, household cleaning and personal care products, dental impressions and medicines. Risk assessment of pesticides, drugs or personal care products that takes into account only active ingredients without the other formulation ingredients and adjuvants commonly used in their application will miss important toxicity outcomes detrimental to non-target species including pollinators and humans. Over a billion pounds of organosilicon surfactants from all uses are produced globally per year, making this a major component of the chemical landscape to which bees and humans are exposed. These silicones, like most "inerts", are generally recognized as safe, have no mandated tolerances, and their residues are largely unmonitored. Lack of their public disclosure and adequate analytical methods constrains evaluation of their risk. Organosilicon surfactants, the most super-spreading and -penetrating adjuvants available, at relevant exposure levels impair honey bee learning, are acutely toxic, and in combination with bee viruses cause synergistic mortality. Organosilicon surfactants need to be regulated as a separate class of "inerts" from the more common silicones. In turn, impacts of organosilicon surfactant exposures on humans need to be evaluated. Silicones in their great diversity probably represent the single most ubiquitous environmental class of global synthetic pollutants. Do honey bees, a model environmental indicator organism, forewarn of hidden risks to humans of ubiquitous silicone exposures?
有机硅表面活性剂是配制和施用农业农药和化肥、家庭清洁和个人护理产品、牙印和药物最有效的助剂。仅考虑农药、药物或个人护理产品中的活性成分，而不考虑其应用中常用的其他制剂成分和助剂，对其进行风险评估将错过对非目标物种（包括传粉媒介和人类）有害的重要毒性结果。每年，全球生产的各种用途的有机硅表面活性剂超过 10 亿磅，这使其成为蜜蜂和人类接触的化学环境的主要组成部分。这些硅酮与大多数“惰性物质”一样，通常被认为是安全的，没有规定的容忍限度，其残留量也基本没有监测。缺乏公开披露和足够的分析方法限制了对其风险的评估。有机硅表面活性剂是最具超强扩散性和渗透性的助剂，在相关暴露水平下会损害蜜蜂的学习能力，具有急性毒性，并与蜜蜂病毒结合会导致协同致死。有机硅表面活性剂需要作为一种单独的“惰性物质”类别进行监管，与更常见的硅酮分开。反过来，还需要评估有机硅表面活性剂暴露对人类的影响。其种类繁多的硅酮可能代表了单一的、最普遍的全球合成污染物环境类别。作为一种环境指示生物模式的蜜蜂，是否预示着对人类普遍暴露于硅酮的隐藏风险？
