Abstract：

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (n-ZnO) are one of the most ever-increasing utilized nanomaterials in consumer products. Due to their antibacterial properties and superior efficiency in absorbing ultraviolet radiation, they are widely used as additives in food packaging and sunscreens. There is thus a need for scientific understanding of risks to the health of adult populations associated with n-ZnO. However, due to inadequate data in relation to characterizing hazards and exposure, there is a substantial uncertainty in risk assessment. In the present study, probabilistic approaches, including Monte Carlo and bootstrap methods, were integrated to assess the relative uncertainties and risks of n-ZnO to the health of males and females. Two major exposure pathways, oral from food packaging and percutaneous from sunscreen-based cosmetics, were evaluated by considering the uncertainty and variability involved in the exposure assessment. Given the cumulative uncertainties of all the extrapolation factors, the results showed that the individual margin of exposure (IMoE) of n-ZnO exhibited a minimal risk through oral exposure, with a minimum value of 786 for males and 96.2 for females (5th centile). However, within the entire range of IMoE values by Monte Carlo simulation through dermal exposure, the IMoE values in 11.45% of exposure scenarios for males and 18.87% for females were lower than the upper limit of the acceptable risk (IMoE≤1). Intra-species, inter-species, and subacute-to-chronic extrapolation factors in the hazard assessment process contributed up to 97% of the uncertainty. These findings provided a scientific basis for understanding risks to the health of adult populations that could help allow regulatory acceptance of consumer products containing n-ZnO and highlighted the need for additional studies on hazard and exposure assessments of nanotechnologies.

中文摘要:

氧化锌纳米颗粒（n-ZnO）是消费品中利用率最高的纳米材料之一。由于其抗菌特性和卓越的紫外线辐射吸收效率，被广泛用作食品包装和防晒品的添加剂。因此，有必要科学地了解与n-ZnO相关的成年人群健康风险。然而，由于与描述危害和暴露有关的数据不足，风险评估存在很大的不确定性。在本研究中，整合了包括蒙特卡罗和自举方法等多种概率方法，以更加准确评估n-ZnO对男性和女性健康的相对不确定性和风险。重点关注纳米氧化锌的两种主要暴露途径，即来自食品包装的经口暴露和来自防晒用品的经皮暴露途径。研究发现，考虑了所有外推因子的累积不确定性， n-ZnO经口暴露途径的个体暴露阈值（IMoE）表现出最低的健康风险，男性最小值为786，女性最小值为96.2（IMoE≥1）。然而，通过10万次蒙特卡洛抽样，男性和女性在经皮暴露情景中分别由11.45%和18.87%的概率，二者的IMoE值低于可接受风险水平（IMoE≤1）。研究还发现，危害评估过程中的种内、种间和亚急性-慢性外推因子贡献了高达97%的不确定性。这些发现为了解不同性别成年人群的健康风险提供了科学依据，有助于监管部门和公众接受含有纳米氧化锌的个人消费品，并强调需要对纳米技术的危害和暴露评估进行更加全面、深入的研究。这项工作提出了一种概率方法来弥合纳米材料的健康数据鸿沟，以确保以安全和可持续的方式使用基于纳米技术的消费品。

穆云松副教授为论文第一作者，2020级研究生李想为主要完成人，曾凡刚教授为共同通讯作者。

图1：基于概率方法的纳米氧化锌健康风险评估图文摘要

图2：该工作被Environmental Science: Nano选为封底文章

Key words：emerging contaminants, risk governance, uncertainty, monte carlo, personal consumer product, sex differences

关键词：新污染物，风险管控，不确定性，蒙特卡洛，个人消费品，性别差异

原文载于Environment Science: Nano, 2023, Advance Article (SCI,Q1, IF=9.473).

原文链接: https://doi.org/10.1039/D2EN00570K