Determination of heavy metals and essential elements in nasal sprays and drops (Saline/Sea Water) and evaluation in terms of toxicity

Overview

Ciftci measured heavy metals and essential elements in 22 saline, sea-water, or ocean-water nasal spray/drop products by ICP-MS. The paper reports product-liquid concentrations in µg/L; it is a finished-product occurrence source, but the current taxonomy has no nasal-spray product slug. Arsenic is reported as total arsenic from elemental ICP-MS, not inorganic arsenic.

Key numbers

• Sample frame: 22 saline samples coded A1-L2; each sample result in Table 4 is reported as mean ± standard deviation with n = 6.
• Aluminum ranged from ND to 106.68 ± 6.22 µg/L in sample A2; no measured aluminum concentration exceeded the cited 200.00 µg/L drinking-water comparator.
• Antimony ranged from 0.12 to 8.74 µg/L; sample G1 was 8.74 ± 1.52 µg/L, and sample G2 was 4.63 ± 0.77 µg/L.
• Total arsenic ranged from 0.05 to 2.55 µg/L; the highest table value was sample G1 at 2.55 ± 1.16 µg/L.
• Cadmium was ND in every sample; the paper gives the cadmium limit of detection as 0.04 µg/L.
• Chromium ranged from 0.21 to 6.56 µg/L; sample B1 was 6.56 ± 0.41 µg/L.
• Copper ranged from 0.04 ± 0.01 µg/L in D2 to 606 ± 38 µg/L in H2; H1 was also high at 588 ± 14 µg/L, with G1 and G2 at 267 ± 5 and 276 ± 11 µg/L.
• Lead ranged from ND to 1.98 ± 0.19 µg/L; A1 and A2 were 1.98 ± 0.19 and 1.87 ± 0.04 µg/L.
• Manganese ranged from ND to 17.57 ± 8.60 µg/L in L2; L1 was 16.99 ± 7.97 µg/L.
• Nickel was ND in every sample; the paper gives the nickel limit of detection as 0.05 µg/L.
• Zinc ranged from ND to 128.34 ± 10.44 µg/L; D2 carried the maximum table value.
• Non-routing elements: boron ranged from 129 ± 43 to 10057 ± 648 µg/L; silicon ranged from 355 ± 31 to 3106 ± 270 µg/L.

Methods (brief)

The author analyzed Al, Sb, As, B, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Si, and Zn using an Agilent 7900 quadrupole ICP-MS. Calibration standards were 1.0, 5.0, 20.0, 50.0, 250.0, and 500.0 µg/L. Quality checks included standard addition and a seawater certified reference material. Standard-addition recoveries ranged from 83% to 115%; CRM recoveries ranged from 82% to 108%, including arsenic 87 ± 2%, cadmium 85 ± 2%, lead 88 ± 4%, and zinc 83 ± 2%.

Implications

Certification (HMTc): This is occurrence evidence for a finished nasal spray/drop liquid, but the HMI closed product vocabulary currently has no nasal-spray row. The page is therefore held as source evidence with products left empty until a respiratory/nasal product category exists.

Courses: The paper is a clear example of why route of exposure matters: the author compares product-liquid values to drinking-water limits but also states that oral-reference-dose comparisons are not directly accurate for nasal administration.

App: The source can support a product-detail note for saline or sea-water nasal sprays if such a product row is added, especially for tAs, Sb, Cu, Pb, and Al screening values in µg/L.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• Arsenic, Total
• Lead
• Cadmium
• Chromium
• Nickel
• Copper

Verification notes

• PDF text was extracted with pdftotext -layout to /tmp/hmi_row_1541.txt; Table 4, Table 5, Table 6, and the Results bullets were re-read before writing.
• Identity checks before creation: DOI 10.1007/s11356-023-29133-0, raw handle MFK_determination-of-heavy-metals-and-essential-elements-in, raw SHA-256 a18932754afbd03728682a8a214f8d52a14c23cec5b50c42040f16efb2d94abc, and cite key ciftci2023-nasal-sprays-drops-metals were searched in wiki/sources/ and evidence files; no existing source page was found.
• Units are preserved as µg/L; no conversion to ppb or mg/L was made.
• Speciation: ICP-MS measured elemental arsenic after direct liquid analysis. This page labels arsenic as tAs and does not infer inorganic arsenic.
• Brand firewall: the source uses sample codes only; no brand names are reported or attached to values.
• Closed-vocabulary note: no nasal-spray product slug exists in docs/gpt-collaboration/taxonomy-snapshot.md, so products: [] is intentional and the matrix terms are descriptive.

Update history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.