MARTA FAGGIAN¹, ALESSANDRA SEMENZATO¹, ANNA BELLONI FORTINA¹,
GIULIA GALIZIA¹, ANDREA BARATTO², STEFANO DALL’ACQUA¹*
*Corresponding Author
1. Unired Srl, Spin-Off University of Padova, Italy
2. Unifarco SpA, Santa Giustina (BL), Italy

Abstract

Nowadays the offer of laundry detergents which claim dermatological safety is extensive both in supermarket and pharmacy channels. Regarding dermatological safety, besides allergens and preservatives reported on the label, the concentration of heavy metals and enzymes needs to be considered too. The aim of this study was to analyze 14 commercial laundry detergents from supermarket and pharmacy channels, with and without claim of dermatological safety.
The results showed that both for heavy metals and enzymes, the presence of claims is not always an index of the product’s safety.

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, laundry detergents have increasingly been evaluated when managing atopic dermatitis, since dermatologists have become more aware of their irritant and allergic potential (1). For this reason, pharmacies offer detergents presenting skin safety as their main claim. However, this trend has also increased in the supermarket channel, where nowadays there are a lot of products that claim to be “gentle on the skin”. Since in many cases price differences of “skin-gentle” products are significant between the two channels (supermarket and pharmacy), it is interesting to investigate which differences in content there are among the products. The aim of this study was to analyse the concentrations of heavy metals as well as enzymes in 14 laundry detergents from supermarket and pharmacy channels. If people used the right amount of detergent and water to wash their clothes, the rinsing process would remove these substances from the tissues. In common practice, people use more detergent than needed and less water both for ecological and economic reasons. As a matter of fact, after washing, heavy metals and enzymes could remain on clothes, alo ...