Aggregate exposure is the exposure to one single chemical via all exposure routes (dermal, oral and inhalatory) and from different sources (for example several different consumer products and/ or in combination with food).
The assessment of aggregate exposure of one chemical is important because consumers can be exposed to a chemical from different sources at the same time. This means that people can be at risk due to the sum of exposures, although the use of one product seems to be safe. For instance a fragrance can be present in several personal care products as well as in cleaning products.
RIVM is actively involved in developing and improving methods for aggregate exposure assessment. RIVM, in collaboration with ETH Zürich and Radboud University in Nijmegen, developed the Probabilistic Aggregate Consumer Exposure Model (PACEM) , a model for calculation of exposure to chemical substances from different consumer products. The model has been used in a number of examples such as parabens exposure in children (Gosens et al., 2014) and consumer exposure to MI from cosmetics and cleaning products (Ezendam et al., 2018).