Hygienic Assessment of Disposable Baby Diapers Made with Innovative Materials

Background: It is of current importance to develop an algorithm for assessing chemical and physical safety of products for children and adolescents made with such innovative materials as organic cotton, bamboo, fibers and threads containing silver ions used for children’s underwear, materials impregnated with marigold extract for insoles of children’s footwear, and diapers from plant raw materials. The institute conducts testing and scientific substantiation of children’s goods made using innovative technologies.

Objective: To assess safety of diapers made with innovative materials (ECO-diapers).

Materials and methods: We conducted physicochemical, toxicological and organoleptic testing of 200 samples of medium size disposable baby ECO-diapers made with innovative materials.

Results: The results of chemical and toxicological tests of ECO-diapers in a model aqueous environment showed that the formaldehyde concentration in aqueous extracts of the diaper samples ranged from 0.08 ± 0.020 to 0.1 mg/dm³; toxicity index values – from 74.1 to 89.1 %; pH – from 0.35 to 0.5 units, and the total phenolic content – from < 0.005 to 0.024 ± 0.002 mg/dm³, thus being within permissible limits. Measured concentrations of acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, acetone, benzene, hexane, methyl and propyl alcohols, toluene, ethyl acetate, lead, arsenic, zinc, chromium were also below threshold values. Chemical testing of the samples of baby diapers in a model air environment with exposure duration of 4, 12, and 24 hours detected migration of chemicals already after four hours of exposure, which did not change following 12 and 24 hours. The value of water absorption capacity, which is one of the main indicators of functional benefit of diapers, ranged from 307.6 ± 30.8 g to 355.5 ± 35.5 g and significantly exceeded the established standard (not less than 240.0 g for medium size diapers) owing to the use of innovative materials in the production of ECO-diapers.

Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the necessity to develop special methodological approaches to measuring breathability of ECO- and traditional diapers, to regulate smell by including this organoleptic quality criterion in the list of safety requirements, and to limit exposure duration in a model air environment to four hours.

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