Shin and colleagues measured nine elements in disposable infant diapers from Korea, Japan, the United States, and Germany. The PDF is a scan. No value on this page is taken from the image unless the results prose and Table 1 agree. The samples are diapers. They are not baby wipes.
Key numbers
Eleven products: three Korean (K1 to K3), three Japanese (J1 to J3), three United States (U1 to U3), and two German (G1 and G2). Table 1 is a total digest, in ppm. N.D. is not detected. Arsenic and mercury were not detected in any of the eleven. Lead was detected only in K1.
Antimony, Table 1, ppm: K1 0.144, K2 not detected, K3 0.205; J1 not detected, J2 0.054, J3 15.394; U1 6.427, U2 6.470, U3 11.942; G1 0.073, G2 4.597. The results prose names the same detects and calls the United States diapers high as a group, with J3 the single highest.
Other Table 1 cells on which the prose and the table agree: lead K1 0.089 ppm, all other lead cells not detected; cadmium K1 0.173 and K3 0.331 ppm, other cadmium cells not detected; chromium J2 1.073 ppm, other chromium cells not detected. Cobalt, copper, and nickel are also in the table. Their cell-by-cell grid was not stable enough in the scan to reprint here. The prose says nickel was found in most samples and that one German diaper (G1) was not detected for the metals other than a single low antimony.
The artificial-urine extracts (3, 6, and 24 hours at about 40 °C) are Tables 2, 3, and 4. Those grids were not transcribed. The English abstract, which is printed on the first page and was read from the scan, says extractable antimony and extractable chromium were higher at 3 hours than at 6 and 24 hours, and that extractable copper and nickel rose as contact time increased. The authors compare detects with an Oeko-Tex figure they cite and conclude the diapers were under it. That comparison is theirs. An extractable textile limit is not restated here as a wipe limit, and these samples are not wipes.
Methods (brief)
Total digestion was a wet nitric-acid digestion of cut diaper. The scan’s volume line did not read cleanly, so no final volume is quoted. Nine elements (antimony, arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, nickel, mercury) were measured by ICP-MS and ICP-AES. A second preparation loaded cut diaper with artificial urine and held it at about 40 °C for 3, 6, or 24 hours. The artificial-urine recipe did not read cleanly enough to quote percentages. Arsenic is not speciated. Mercury is not speciated. Chromium is total chromium.
Evidence fitness
This is a diaper measurement from 2004, useful as pathway context for a product worn against the same skin as a wipe. It does not measure a wipe sheet, a wipe lotion, or a wipe package. The 3-hour, 6-hour, and 24-hour tables stay in the paper until a cleaner transcription exists.
Limitations
The file is a scanned image. Timed-extract numbers are not quoted. Detection limits are not printed as a table that could be read. Country codes are not brands. No dermal absorption fraction is measured.
Related evidence
- Antimony
- Lead
- Determination of Selected Harmful Substances in Baby Diapers Available on the South African Market
Update history
No substantive edit history is available in this build. The full commit record is available in git.