Jo Ah-Reum, Kwon Ba Reum, Lee Inae, Min Jieun, Choi Sohyeon, Park Na-Youn, Kho Younglim, Park Jeongim, Kim Ho, Choi Kyungho
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
Department of Environmental Science, College of Arts and Sciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2025 Jan 15;290:117527. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.117527. Epub 2024 Dec 21.
In recent years, concerns regarding the toxicity of organic UV filters in sunscreen products have increased. While sunscreen products contain multiple UV filters in combination, current understanding on their co-occurrence patterns and mixture toxicities is still limited. This study utilized a public database, "Hwahae", and analyzed 2183 sunscreen products marketed in South Korea as of 2019, using an association rule mining (ARM) to elucidate their co-occurrence patterns. We identified twenty-two UV filters in the sunscreen products, with titanium dioxide (TiO) being the most prevalent (68 %), followed by ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate (EHMC, 60 %) and ethylhexyl salicylate (EHS, 49 %). Sunscreen products typically contained a median of five UV filters per product. Usage patterns of UV filter mixtures varied by the target user group of the product, i.e., general, susceptible, and male users. EHMC and EHS were commonly combined in most products, except those marketed for susceptible users. For susceptible users, inorganic UV filters such as TiO and zinc oxide (ZnO) were dominantly used. Combinations of UV filters that provide protection against different types of UV light, e.g., butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane (BMDBM) for UVA, and octocrylene (OCT), EHS, or homosalate (HS) for UVB, were also frequently used together, with high lift values. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that ARM approach can be useful to identify major combinations of UV filters present in sunscreen products, and prioritize the UV filter combinations requiring safety assessment and regulatory attention.
近年来，人们对防晒产品中有机紫外线过滤剂的毒性愈发关注。虽然防晒产品含有多种紫外线过滤剂的组合，但目前对它们的共存模式和混合毒性的了解仍然有限。本研究利用一个名为“Hwahae”的公共数据库，分析了截至2019年在韩国市场销售的2183种防晒产品，采用关联规则挖掘（ARM）来阐明它们的共存模式。我们在防晒产品中识别出22种紫外线过滤剂，其中二氧化钛（TiO）最为普遍（68%），其次是甲氧基肉桂酸乙基己酯（EHMC，60%）和水杨酸乙基己酯（EHS，49%）。防晒产品通常每种产品含有5种紫外线过滤剂的中位数。紫外线过滤剂混合物的使用模式因产品的目标用户群体而异，即普通用户、敏感用户和男性用户。除了面向敏感用户销售的产品外，EHMC和EHS在大多数产品中通常是组合使用的。对于敏感用户，主要使用无机紫外线过滤剂，如TiO和氧化锌（ZnO）。能提供针对不同类型紫外线防护的紫外线过滤剂组合，例如用于UVA的二乙氨羟苯甲酰基苯甲酸己酯（BMDBM），以及用于UVB的奥克立林（OCT）、EHS或胡莫柳酯（HS），也经常一起使用，提升值很高。总之，我们的研究表明，ARM方法有助于识别防晒产品中存在的紫外线过滤剂的主要组合，并对需要进行安全性评估和监管关注的紫外线过滤剂组合进行优先排序。
