What are the hazards of surfactants?
Biological changes caused by surfactants and their metabolites in the body, that is, the possible toxic and side effects to the body include acute toxicity, subacute toxicity, chronic toxicity, effects on reproduction, embryo toxicity, teratogenicity, Mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, sensitization, hemolysis, etc. Surfactants come into contact with different parts of the human body in different ways, and have different requirements for the above toxic and side effects.
Surfactants are used as various processing aids or synergists in the food and pharmaceutical industries, thus increasing the contact opportunities of surface active agents with the human digestive tract and blood system, which has a negative impact on the oral toxicity, Hemolysis, hereditary and carcinogenicity, teratogenicity put forward strict requirements. Surfactants used in food and oral medicines such as liquids, tablets, pills, etc. must be low-toxic or non-toxic substances, such as intravenous or intramuscular injection, the hemolysis of surfactants must be paid attention to; Problems such as heredity, carcinogenesis, and teratogenicity that may be caused by this need to be tested.
Surfactants are more and more widely used in systems that come into contact with the human body, such as drugs, food, cosmetics and personal hygiene products. Invest more and more attention. For different uses, the focus of surfactants is mainly on irritation to mucous membranes, skin sensitization, toxicity, heredity, carcinogenicity, teratogenicity and hemolysis, digestion and absorption, biodegradability, etc. aspect. For example, for cosmetics, the principle of selecting ingredients in the past was mainly to dress up beautifully, and the selection of surfactants only considered how to achieve the best first effect or main effect, such as washing, foaming, emulsifying, dispersing, etc.; Little or no consideration is given to the effects of surfactants on the natural state of skin, hair, etc., to exert their secondary or auxiliary functions.
At present, the selection principle of surfactants gradually tends to consider how to play the best role of surfactants under the premise of first protecting the normal and healthy state of skin and hair and producing as few toxic and side effects as possible on the human body. Efficacy and Auxiliary Effects. This development trend makes surfactant raw material suppliers, formulators and manufacturers face a challenge, that is, how to re-understand and evaluate the safety and mildness of surfactants, so as to provide consumers with the safest, mildest and mildest most effective product. Therefore, it is very necessary to re-evaluate the safety and mildness of the original surfactant varieties and new surfactants.