Other Toxic Materials and Their Effects

There are a variety of materials and chemicals that can cause serious illness in people who are exposed to them. These toxic materials include:
1,3-butadiene
Where Found: rugs, rug underpaddings, rubber tires, rubber consumer products, nylon, gasoline, auto exhaust, groundwater.

Health Effects:  leukemia, lymph cancer, blood cell cancer; tumors of breast, bronchial tubes, stomach, large intestine, liver, heart, thyroid (in mice: testicular tumors, leukemia)      

Acetaldehyde
Where Found:  body metabolism of alcohol; woodstoves, incinerators, smog, diesel exhaust

Health Effects:  DNA and chromosome damage; binds to liver and other cells causing autoimmune responses; upper respiratory irritation, metabolic disruption, lung damage 
    
Acetone
Where Found:  adhesives

Health Effects: neurologic damage, lung damage; enhances carbon tetrachloride liver damage  (11)
 
Alkylphenol resin
Where Found:  carbonless copy paper (“NCR” forms)

Health Effects:  immune responses including itching/burning skin, rash, flushing, wheezing, cough; nausea; hormone (prostaglandin) irregularities 

Benzenes (benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, naphthalene, others)
Where Found:  gasoline (auto exhaust & interiors, gas stations) diesel exhaust, building materials, plastics, polypropylene food containers, cooked foods, printers, printed & copied paper, copy machines, incinerators, tobacco smoke, woodsmoke, marihuana smoke

Health Effects: bronchial, colon, and liver damage; leukemia; DNA damage; tumors including brain, liver, stomach, lung; cardiac abnormalities, eye irritation, drowsiness, unconsciousness, uncoordination, heart attack  (in mice: birth defects, tumors)
 
BHT (butylated hydroxy-toluene)
Where Found:  migration from polyethylene food packaging, additive in foods (cereals, fats, meats, potatoes, others)

Health Effects: allergic reactions, possible cancer possible kidney damage  (animals: behavioural changes in offspring)(22)
 
Carbon disulfide 
Where Found: solvents, dry-cleaning, painting, spray  painting, glue work, varnishes

Health Effects: peripheral nerve damage, emotional instability, insomnia, lessening of libido
 
Carbon monoxide 
Where Found: woodsmoke, tobacco smoke, auto and diesel exhaust

Health Effects: lung damage & irritation; carboxy-hemoglobin neutralizes blood oxygen transport (9)
 
Chlorinated water 
Where Found: drinking water, shower vapour

Health Effects: immune depression (anti-tumor macrophages)

Chlorobenzene pesticides ( DDT, lindane, heptachlor, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, chlordane, mirex; others) 
Where Found: food chain: fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, human fat, mother’s milk; body fat, contaminated soils, groundwater

Health Effects: brain transmitter changes including neurological ‘kindling’; breast cancer (in test bacteria: genetic mutations; in mice: developmental learning deficits). Many are partially or completely untested  
 
Chloroform, carbon tetrachloride
Where Found: solvents, incinerators, groundwater

Health Effects: liver- lung- & enzyme damage, cancers, kidney damage, cardiac abnormalities, heart attack   

Chlorpyrifos 
Where Found: food residues; widely used home and  agricultural pesticide, herbicide; active metabolite found in urine of 5.8% of U.S population

Health Effects: peripheral nerve damage, autoimmune disease, antibiotic allergy, memory loss, multiple chemical sensitivity, headaches, nausea, muscle cramps; effects are accelerated by other organophosphate pesticides  (33-37)
 
DEHP (diethylhexyl phthalate)
Where Found: plasticizer, food wraps, vinyl blood bags: leaches into blood during storage

Health Effects: likely toxicity to lungs, liver, reproductive organs; possibly carcinogenic (in animals: fetaltoxicity, lung abnormalities)
 
Dioxins
Where Found: contaminant in pesticides, herbicides,  technical products; now worldwide in air, water, meat, fish, human  body (especially fat, liver); formed in incineration, electrical fires,woodsmoke, chemical reactions (possibly sewage sludge)

Health Effects: genetic damage, vitamin A dysregulation, liver toxicity, altered fat metabolism, chlorachne (skin cysts, scarring) thymus atrophy, impaired resistance to infection, breast cancer, nerve transmission damage (in animals: fetal damage, immune damage, enzyme changes)
 
Ethanol
Where Found: glue, alcoholic beverages

Health Effects: fetal damage, developmental delay, neurologic damage, cirrhosis of liver, zinc and selenium deficiencies; accelerates liver damage of chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, and nitrosamines; interferes with body processing of styrene, xylene, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone,  trichloroethylene, benzene
 
Formaldehyde
Where Found: solvents, printing, fabrics, mattresses, tobacco smoke, woodsmoke, foam insulation, particle board, car and diesel exhaust, smog, groundwater

Heath Effects: lung damage, impaired memory & dexterity, immediate and delayed hypersensitivity reactions; asthma, rhinitis; irritation of eyes and respiration  
 
Glycol ethers
Where Found: antifreeze, paint, glue, adhesives, sealants, caulking compounds, printed circuit boards, dyeing, inks

Health Effects: reproductive poisons, red blood cell damage, liver damage (in animals: fetal growth retardation, skeletal defects, testicular lesions) (49)
 
Halothane
Where Found: recently the most common general anesthetic; still in use as pediatric anesthetic

Health Effects: neurologic damage, liver damage (in rodents: developmental brain damage, reduced  learning and exploration in offspring, neurotransmitter changes) (11, 50, 51)
 
Hexachlorobenzene
Where Found: cleaners, fungicide

Health Effects: immune suppression, reduced T&B cell responses (in mice: impaired resistance to infection)
 
Hexachlorophene
Where Found: disinfectant, cleaning agent, soaps; used to wash hospital newborns from 1950’s to 1973

Health Effects: nausea, vomiting, convulsions, central and peripheral nerve damage, kidney damage; caused brain lesions and death when used to wash newborn premature babies

Hydrazine
Where Found: food additives, photographic supplies, herbicides, pesticides, textiles, drugs,  plastics

Health Effects: autoimmune disease (lupus)
 
MBT ( 2 -mercaptobenzothiazole)
Where Found:blood vial stoppers, syringes; rubber nipples & pacifiers and other rubber products

Health Effects: damage to cell walls (cell death), allergy, rubber allergy (in animals: cancer)  

Methanol
Where Found: glue, antifreeze, paint, cement, ink, windshield-wiper solvent; industrial uses

Health Effects: neurologic damage, blindness, lung and gastro-intestinal problems; dizziness, headache
 
Methyl ethyl ketone
Where Found: solvents, photochemical smog

Health Effects: lung irritation and damage
 
Methyl n butyl ketone
Where Found: solvents, glue, varnish 

Health Effects: peripheral nerve damage, loss of motor control and reflexes, tremor, weight loss, muscle weakness (in rodents: nerve cell degeneration)
 
Methylene chloride
Where Found: pesticide sprays, gaseous lubricants,  aerosols, degreasers, waxes, paints,  paint-removers, varnishes

Health Effects: heart muscle damage, heartbeat changes; creates carbon monoxide (in animals: cancers)
 
N-hexane
Where Found: building materials, vegetable oil extraction, gasoline, solvents, glue, roofing glue, varnish, vinyl production,  printing inks, paints, dry-cleaning, spray painting

Health Effects: nerve cell damage, peripheral limb nerve damage; headache, cramps
 
Nitrogen dioxide
Where Found: incinerators, woodsmoke, smog, auto and diesel emissions; coal, oil & gas stoves

Health Effects: lung & respiratory damage, pulmonary fluid, fatty acid oxidation, bronchitis, childhood bronchitis; forms methemoglobin in blood (in mice: reduced resistance to infection, lung cell damage)
 
Nitrosamines
Where Found: consumer rubbers (tires, baby nipples and pacifiers), soaps, cosmetics, tobacco smoke, food & food containers and packaging, marihuana smoke, pesticides, herbicides, industrial uses

Health Effects: DNA damage, cancers, cell death (in 30 animal species tested: cancers)  
 
Ozone
Where Found: incinerators, photochemical smog, diesel and auto exhaust, laser printers

Health Effects: lung immune system damag (B-cells), bronchial constriction, fatty acid oxidation, enzyme de-activation (in mice and rabbits: lung lesions; in rats: fat metabolism damage, increased deaths)
 
PBBs (polybrominated biphenyls)
Where Found: flame retardants (rugs, plastics, clothing, furnishings)

Health Effects: immune depression (T&B cells)  
 
PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls)
Where Found: leakage from transformers; disposal of copy papers, paints/plasticizers  pesticide extenders, flame retardants, adhesives, coolants, inks, hydraulic  fluids; human, fish, and animal fat; groundwater

Health Effects: genetic damage causing developmental & cognitive retardation, vitamin A dysregulation, chlorachne, immune depression, peripheral nerve damage, liver damage, respiratory problems, thyroid hormone dysregulation, decreases in reaction time, spatial learning, short-term memory; excess pigmentation (in animals: tumors, growth retardation,  behavioural changes, fetal death, increase  infection)
    
Pentachlorophenol
Where Found: wood preservative, packaging  preservative, insecticide, metabolite of  lindane & hexachlorobenzene; found in urine of 75% of U.S. population

Health Effects: possible genetic damage, suspected cancers; commonly contaminated with dioxins (in animals: fetal death and mutations)  

Phenols
Where Found: disinfectants, insecticides, fungicides (especially citrus fruit), food additives,  tobacco, marihuana, natural food  occurrences, incinerators

Health Effects: nausea, vomiting, paralysis, coma (in cats, dogs: immune depression; in mice: trace amounts cause  immune dysfunction of yeast-killing macrophages)  
 
Solvents (mixed) (usually some combination of: benzene, toluene, xylene, styrene, acetone, methanol, phenol, alkylphenol, dichloromethane)
Where Found: paints, glues, degreasers, thinners,  extractors, dyes, industrial  manufacturing, laboratories

Health Effects: brain, skeletal, and other birth defects; brain cell degeneration; panic attacks, impaired memory, depression; visuospatial and perceptual impairment
 
Styrene
Where Found: rubber, carpet backing, rug underpaddings, photocopiers, copy  paper, laser printers, polystyrene food  containers (yogurt, others)

Health Effects: genetic mutations, chromosome aberrations; interference with liver enzymes, dermatitis; skin, nasal & respiratory irritations, fatigue, irritability; decreases in manual dexterity,  concentration, and reaction times (in mice: tumors and increased death rate)  
  
Sulphur dioxide
Where Found: car and diesel exhaust, incinerators, woodsmoke, smog

Health Effects: lung & respiratory damage, bronchiospasm, airway irritation  (in mice: increased infection)
   

Tetracycline
Where Found: antibiotic

Health Effects: fetal malformations; chelates bone calcium
 
Toluene (methyl benzene)
Where Found: paint, solvents, carpets, plastic & rubber cements, white-out fluid, glue,roofing glue, photocopiers, print shops, dry-cleaning, spray painting  varnishes, building materials, incinerators, smog, gasoline, groundwater (drinking, skin absorption), printed paper

Health Effects: damages: menstruation, respiratory system, brain, reproductive system, verbal memory, short-term memory, reaction speed; increases emotional reactivity and awake periods; induces asthma, blood vessel dilation, hearing loss  
 
Toluene-diisocyanate 
Where Found: typing correction fluid, polyurethane foams and elastomers (insulation, cushions), industrial uses

Health Effects:  immediate (type 1) immune reactions, other immune-system changes; damage to mucous membranes; cough, wheeze; irritation of eyes, lungs  
 
Trichloroethylene
Where Found: dry-cleaning, painting, spray painting, glue work, dewaxing and degreasing agents, insecticides, drain   cleaners, printing inks, solvents, varnishes; incinerators

Health Effects: damage to cranial and trigeminal (nasal) nerves, liver; brain fatty acid changes; narcotic symptoms: dizziness, nausea, numbness, alcohol intolerance; disruptions in memory and understanding; cardiac abnormalities, heart attack (in mice: cancers)  
 
Vinyl chloride
Where Found: plastic wraps (‘Saran Wrap’), PVC  plastics, pipes and connectors;  packing materials, wire and cable coatings, footwear, spray-propellant gas, hard flooring, vinyl records,  groundwater.

Health Effects: liver, brain & lung cancers; trigeminal nerve damage, ‘vinyl chloride disease’ (loss of bone calcium, auto-immune complexes, peripheral nerve damage, Raynaud’s symptoms, immune complex disorder); skin damage, T-cell depression, kidney damage; sexual and sleep disorders
 
Xylene
Where Found: paints, thinners, solvents, gasoline, polystyrene cups, adhesives, roofing glue, building materials, varnish, cleaners, paper, photochemical smog, groundwater.

Health Effects: lung enzyme damage, upper respiratory irritation, fatigue, headache, nausea; impaired balance and reaction times

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Environmental and Toxic Exposures