Exposure Factors to Retail Insect Repellents Based on Household use in South Korea

Author(s): Ki-Tae Sim, Moon-young Hwang, Myunghee Kwon, Joo-hyon Kim

Abstract

Household exposure to insect repellents including hazardous ingredients may play a role in the health risk of users caused by the use of ingredients. A market searching was conducted to elucidate which repellents and major ingredients were commonly used in the market. Furthermore, we investigated valuable exposure factors on respiratory exposure and the combined exposure amounts to insect repellents of household users that are useful to conduct accurate exposure assessments. 254 insect repellents and 10 major ingredients were searched in market. The most prevalent active ingredients of insect repellents were deet and picaridin. Web-survey study evaluated respiratory exposure factors such as the use frequency, the exposure duration, the exposed amount, and the combined exposure amount divided by the various application types of insect repellents. The respondent's groups including respondents with preschool children and children were showing regular household use of various insect repellents. The purpose of this study is to investigate, analyze, and evaluate the use of repellents through a nationwide online survey, and suggest a representative exposure coefficient for the use of repellents.