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Occupational and environmental exposures to chemicals are major potential routes of exposure for direct skin toxicity and for systemic absorption. The majority of these exposures are to complex mixtures, yet most experimental studies to assess topical chemical absorption are conducted neat or in simple aqueous vehicles. A component of many industrial mixtures is surfactants that solubilize ingredients and stabilize mixtures of oily components when present in aqueous vehicles. The purpose of this series of experiments was to use two well-developed experimental techniques to assess how solution interactions present in a pure nonbiological in vitro system (membrane coated fibers, MCF) compare to those seen in a viable ex vivo biological preparation (isolated perfused porcine skin flap, IPPSF). Two widely encountered anionic surfactants, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), were studied in 10% solutions. The rank orders of absorption were: water: pentachlorophenol (PCP) > 4-nitrophenol (PNP) > parathion > fenthion > simazine > propazine; SLS: PNP > PCP > parathion > simazine > fenthion > propazine; and LAS: PNP > PCP > simazine > parathion > fenthion > propazine. For all penetrants, absorption was greater in SLS compared to LAS mixtures, a finding consistent with smaller micelle sizes seen with SLS. For these low-water-solubility compounds, absorption was greater from aqueous solutions in nearly every case. The inert three-fiber MCF array predicted absorptive fluxes seen in the ex vivo IPPSF, suggesting lack of any biological effects of the surfactants on skin.