Aggregate Exposure to Vitamin A from the Diet, Personal Care Products and Cosmetics

Vitamin A is an essential nutrient in the human diet, and ingredients containing vitamin A and its derivatives are also used in personal care products and cosmetics. Therefore, the consumer can be exposed from multiple products and by multiple exposure routes. Vitamin A deficiencies are associated with a number of health concerns, particularly in children. However, excessive exposures to vitamin A are associated with adverse health effects, such as teratogenicity, and changes in bone mineral density in humans, although the later remains controversial.

In this study aggregate exposure to vitamin A (considered in the form of retinol equivalents) was assessed in pre-menopausal, menopausal, and post-menopausal women in European and US populations considering sources from foods, dietary supplements, and cosmetic and personal care products. Large data sets measuring consumer habits and practices, including diary data, food surveys and clinical studies, where incorporated at the subject level using probabilistic modelling to calculate population exposure distributions. The model incorporated product occurrence data for vitamin A in 17 cosmetic products, so as not to overestimate exposure. The relative contributions of the different sources of exposure were measured.

In all populations studied the average and P95 exposure was well below the Upper Intake Limit (3000 µg/day). The major source of vitamin A exposure comes from the diet, with cosmetic sources providing only a very small fraction of total exposure (2-3% at P95 in European and American females). In addition to providing a realistic assessment of total vitamin A exposure, this work can be used as a case study on how to approach future complex aggregate exposure questions.