ABSTRACT
The skin can be an important exposure route to chemicals from a variety of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, household, agricultural, or industrial products. For organic chemicals of moderate size, penetration through the skin membrane is a solutiondiffusion process (1-4). Once chemical is removed from the skin’s surface, chemical within the skin can continue to diffuse through the skin and enter the bloodstream. As a result, for brief chemical exposures much of the systemic chemical absorption can occur after the chemical has been removed from the skin surface.
