Fluorescent brighteners (FBs) are extensively used as important chemical additives in multiple industrial fields worldwide. The history of the use of global FBs spans over 60 years, but knowledge on their environmental occurrence and risks remains largely unknown. Here, we screened indoor dust and hand wipes from South China for a broad suite of 17 emerging FBs using a new comprehensive analytical method. All 17 FBs were detected in the indoor environment for the first time, most of them having been rarely investigated or never reported in prior environmental studies. Ionic FBs were found to be more abundant than nonionic ones. The median total concentrations of the 17 detectable FBs reached 11,000 ng/g in indoor dust and 2640 ng/m² in hand wipes, comparable to or higher than those of well-known indoor pollutants. Human exposure assessment indicated that hand-to-mouth contact is a significant pathway for exposure to FBs, with a comparable contribution to that of dust ingestion. Most of the newly identified FBs are predicted to have persistent, bioaccumulative, or toxic properties. Our work demonstrates that FBs are another class of highly abundant, hazardous, and ubiquitous indoor pollutants that have been overlooked for decades and points to an emerging concern.

中文翻译：

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将荧光增白剂鉴定为室内环境中另一类新出现的丰富、普遍存在的污染物

荧光增白剂（FBs）作为重要的化学添加剂广泛应用于全球多个工业领域。全球 FB 的使用历史跨越 60 多年，但关于其环境发生和风险的知识仍然很大程度上未知。在这里，我们使用一种新的综合分析方法筛选了来自华南地区的室内灰尘和擦手纸，以筛选出 17 种新兴 FB。首次在室内环境中检测到所有 17 种 FB，其中大多数在先前的环境研究中很少被调查或从未报道过。发现离子FB比非离子FB更丰富。17 种可检测 FB 的中位总浓度在室内灰尘中达到 11,000 ng/g 和 2640 ng/m ²在手巾纸中，与众所周知的室内污染物相当或更高。人体暴露评估表明，手口接触是暴露于 FB 的重要途径，其贡献与吸入灰尘的贡献相当。大多数新发现的 FB 预计具有持久性、生物累积性或毒性。我们的工作表明，FBs 是另一类高度丰富、危险且无处不在的室内污染物，几十年来一直被忽视，并指出了一个新的问题。