Division of Molecular and Systems Toxicology, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Swiss Centre for Applied Human Toxicology (SCAHT), University of Basel, 4055 Basel, Switzerland.
Molecules. 2022 Dec 25;28(1):173. doi: 10.3390/molecules28010173.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most widely used food contact materials due to its excellent mechanical properties and recyclability. Migration of substances from PET and assessment of compliance are usually determined by experimental testing, which can be challenging depending on the migrants of interest. Low concentrations and missing reference standards, among other factors, have led to inadequate investigation of the migration potential of PET oligomers. Migration modeling can overcome such limitations and is therefore a suitable starting point for exposure and risk assessment. In this study, the activation energy-based (E) model and the A model were used to systematically evaluate the migration potential of 52 PET oligomers for 12 different application scenarios. Modeling parameters and conditions were evaluated to investigate their impact and relevance on the assessment of realistic exposures. Obtained results were compared with safety thresholds known from the concept of toxicological thresholds of concern. This allowed the evaluation and identification of oligomers and/or applications where migration or exposure levels may be associated with a potential risk because they exceed these safety thresholds. Overall, this study demonstrated that migration modeling can be a high-throughput, fast, flexible, and suitable approach for comprehensive exposure assessment.
聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）因其优异的机械性能和可回收性而成为应用最广泛的食品接触材料之一。物质从 PET 中的迁移以及合规性评估通常通过实验测试来确定，这取决于感兴趣的迁移物，可能具有挑战性。低浓度和缺少参考标准等因素，导致对 PET 低聚物的迁移潜力的研究不足。迁移建模可以克服这些限制，因此是暴露和风险评估的合适起点。在这项研究中，基于活化能（E）模型和 A 模型系统地评估了 52 种 PET 低聚物在 12 种不同应用场景下的迁移潜力。评估了建模参数和条件，以研究它们对评估实际暴露的影响和相关性。将获得的结果与已知的毒理学关注阈值概念中的安全阈值进行比较。这允许对可能因超过这些安全阈值而与潜在风险相关的迁移或暴露水平的低聚物和/或应用进行评估和识别。总体而言，这项研究表明，迁移建模可以作为一种高通量、快速、灵活且适合综合暴露评估的方法。
