Toxicological Misuse Risk Assessment Solutions

Product Misuse and Consequences

The use of products for unintended purposes is common among consumers. Using products in ways that were not intended or reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer (misuse) can lead to potential recalls and fines and may increase exposure to the toxicity of substances used in the product which may cause harmful health effects or fatalities.

Product instructions or product manuals do not guarantee that the item will be used as intended. Several factors that can contribute to misuse are, but not limited to:

• Product design or user interface
• Product users (age, gender, literacy, language barriers, disabilities, etc.)
• Product use environment
• Available tools or resources

During the product design phase, manufacturers should consider the different ways that consumers may interact with and misuse the product.

How Can Intertek Help?

Intertek provides toxicological misuse risk assessment solutions for finished products to identify the reasonably foreseeable misuse risks by a targeted population (i.e. children). With this information, manufacturers can then take the necessary steps to eliminate these risks through redesign or reformulation before any recalls or injuries can occur.

Exposure Routes:

Our Toxicology Assessment team will review the toxicological product ingredient data using public literature resources and our in-house database to gather relevant information on the exposure route(s) (indicated from the misuse scenarios).

Our experts will consider toxicity by oral and dermal routes under the identified potential misuse scenarios. For oral and dermal risk, the oral and dermal absorption value for the respective ingredient will be used to adjust the exposure. The worst-case exposure will be evaluated (i.e. oral ingestion and dermal application) and the margin of safety will be calculated to determine if there is any significant risk of systemic toxicity from the ingredients.

We specialize in the safety assessments for home and personal care products. We have years of hands-on expertise working with clients across the many categories of consumer products and brands and we can help you to become a trusted and valued supplier.