Are we reaching the limits or our ability to detect skin effects with our current testing and measuring methods for consumer products?

Testing for potential adverse skin effects is a key part of both the overall safety assessment for many consumer products and the evaluation of potential product improvements in mildness. Whilst modern tissue and paper products (i.e. facial tissues, catamenial products, baby wipes and baby and adult diapers) are inherently very mild to skin, current test methodology may not be robust enough to evaluate future improvements in such products. This article provides a commentary on several technologies we have been exploring to improve the sensitivity of test methods for tissue and paper products. The focus has been on three approaches: (i) further exaggerating exposure conditions using novel approaches to sample application, (ii) increasing the sensitivity of the manner in which we score for irritant effects, either visually or via instrumentation and (iii) quantitatively measuring additional endpoints, i.e. subjective sensory effects.