Hofmann, Maja A.Giménez Arnau, Anna MariaAberer, WernerBindslev Jensen, CarstenZuberbier, Torsten2018-10-262018-10-262018Hofmann MA, Giménez-Arnau A, Aberer W, Bindslev-Jensen C, Zuberbier T. MI (2-methyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one) contained in detergents is not detectable in machine washed textiles. Clin Transl Allergy. 2018 Jan 5;8:1. DOI: 10.1186/s13601-017-0187-22045-7022http://hdl.handle.net/10230/35663BACKGROUND: European legislation has banned the preservative methylisothiazolinone (MI) from inclusion in leave-on cosmetics. However, the risk for allergic reactions depends on exposure. The aim of this study was to determine the risk of MI in laundry detergents for household machine washing. METHODS: Different formulations of laundry detergents with commercial MI levels, up to one thousand ppm were used and three different types of clothes were washed in a normal household machine setting one time and 10 times. The level of MI was measured by HPLC. RESULTS: While MI could be retrieved in the positive control of clothes drenched with washing powder but not washed afterwards, MI could not be detected in any specimen of clothes washed under household conditions. The detection limit was 0.5 ppm. CONCLUSION: It is important to discuss the difference of risk and hazard. While MI clearly is a high hazard as a strong contact allergen, the risk depends on exposure. Regarding the risk of exposure levels for the consumer to MI in clothes it can be stated that the use of MI in laundry detergents is safe for the consumer if these products are used according to the instructions in the normal household setting machine wash.application/pdfengCopyright © The Author(s) 2018. Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Al·lèrgiaDetergentsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13601-017-0187-2Contact allergyLaundry detergentPreservativeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess