Biocides in spray products - exposure and health

This report present results from a pilot study, where it was sought to evaluate the existing software models ConsExpo and BEAT, by comparing exposure assessments of spray products performed in the software models to actual measurements performed in a human exposure chamber.

Three different biocidal products were chosen and sprayed according to use instructions in the human exposure chamber. Aerosol size distribution spectra, number concentration and chemical composition were monitored to measure inhalation exposure. In addition, wipe samples were taken from surfaces in the chamber to estimate secondary exposure.

Model evaluations were performed in ConsExpo and BEAT using two different methods: 1) by applying model default values for the spray application and 2) by substituting some of the default values with values from the actual measurements in the human exposure chamber. These results were compared to calculations of exposure based purely on data measured in the human exposure chamber.

The comparison of experimental data with the models, showed that the version of ConsExpo that were used did not perform ideally for the airborne exposure estimation. However, the studies only include one product which has a potential for inhalable exposure. It is therefore difficult to draw conclusions from these results. For the secondary exposure, a better agreement between the measurements and modelling were found, which indicates that the models may predict the secondary exposure for this product type.