During the past decade researchers have made significant advances in understanding the uptake of higher molecular weight organic pollutants via dermal absorption. Theories have been developed to predict their uptake from air, through bare skin, under steady-state and dynamic conditions. Further theories have been developed to estimate dermal uptake of organics from clothing. For SVOCs with the right combination of physical-chemical properties, exposure via dermal absorption is predicted to be larger than exposure via inhalation. Circumstantial evidence for dermal uptake of pollutants from the environment comes from an increasing number of reported correlations between specific chemicals in skinwipes and these same chemicals (or their metabolites) in blood and urine. This presentation will review key ideas that have taken us to this point. It also serves as an introduction to two talks that immediately follow: Gabriel Beko summarizing specific experiments that have demonstrated substantial direct dermal uptake from air for several SVOCs, and Glenn Morrison discussing clothing as either an inhibitor or amplifier of SVOC uptake via the dermal pathway. Taken together, this research has alerted us to the fact that dermal intake of certain common indoor SVOCs (e.g., phthalates, parabens, alkylphenols, benzophenones, synthetic musks, chlorpyrifos) can be an important exposure pathway.
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