Math- and logic-check me, will ya?

[Guest guest]

Very long time no show.....

But tonight I’ve been going through the RIFM’s Position Statement on

Methyl Eugenol…, trying to put the puzzle together. It's been several

hours now. Gettin' closer. And I need help.

Working with the “Calculation table for dermal exposure†on the last

page of that document, I’ve come up with the following. Someone please

check it over and let me know what I’m not seeing.

..3 gram of perfume applied (per day per 60-kg person)... that’s from

the PERFUME EXTRACTS row

20% of that is " fragrance " (column 6)

So, .3g * .20 = .06 gram of fragrance applied per day

That’s .06 g * 1000 mg/g = 60 mgs fragrance applied per day

60 mgs * 1000 MICROgrams = 60,000 MICROgrams total fragrance per day

60,000 MICROgrams/60 kgs of bodyweight = 1000 MICROgrams of fragrance

per kg of bodyweight per day (that’s the figure in the last column of

their chart)

Now, if I understand correctly, RIFM is proposing that a (lower end)

max of 150 MICROgrams (of the fragrance) be of methyleugenol.

So I’ll divide 150 micrograms by 1000 micrograms and get that 15% of

the total fragrance can be from methyleugenol.

So, .15 * .20 = .03

That’s 3%. 3% of the 20%.

3% ME of the 20% fragrance

or .03 * .2 = .6% ME of the perfume

Now I’ll go to a fragrance containing the restricted component

methyleugenol. Rose oil.

I’ll assume 3.5% ME in the rose oil.

So, .006/.035 = .1714

So 17.14% rose oil (containing 3.5% ME) in the perfume would give a

..6% ME concentration in the perfume.

But still…where’d they get .02% max concentration of ME???? (Page 1

of the document isn’t helping me; I can’t understand where they got

2,547 mg/kg body weight/day.)

If the .02% is accurate, that’d allow only .57% of the same rose oil.

Giant difference: .57% vs. 17.14%.

Help me, help me,

Jen