Occurrence, distribution, and health risk assessment of 20 personal care products in indoor and outdoor swimming pools

Abstract

The distribution of 20 personal care products (PCPs), including seven preservatives, six UV filters, five anticorrosion agents, and two antimicrobials, were determined in 40 swimming pools using solid phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Among 14 targets detected, 1H-benzotriazole and triclocarban were observed in all samples. The detected concentrations of preservatives, UV filters, anticorrosion agents, and antimicrobials were in the ranges of not detected (nd)–179 ng L−1, nd–289 ng L−1, nd–58.4 ng L−1, and nd–56.9 ng L−1, respectively. The presence of preservatives, UV filters and antimicrobials in pool waters might be mainly brought in by human activities while anticorrosion agents were mainly from the source water. Furthermore, the concentrations of methylparaben, ethylparaben, 1H-benzotriazole, 5-methyl-1H-benzotriazole, 5-chloro-1H-benzotriazole, and 5,6-dimethyl-1H-benzotriazole in indoor pools were found higher than those in outdoor pools. The longer opening time and weaker light intensity for indoor pools might cause the difference. The redundancy analysis showed significantly negative correlations between the concentrations of parabens and the contents of residual chlorine in the pool waters. A higher chlorine residue may promote the decomposition of parabens. Health risk assessment showed that skin penetration would be the main approach for the intake of PCPs by swimmers while swimming. Compared with the non-athletic swimmers, the athletic swimmers might be more sensitive, but the health risks for both groups of swimmers could be negligible.