1.1 What is Stoddard solvent? |
1.2 What happens to Stoddard solvent when
it enters the environment? |
1.3 How might I be exposed to Stoddard
solvent? |
1.4 How can Stoddard solvent enter and
leave my body? |
1.5 How can Stoddard solvent affect my
health? |
1.6 Is there a medical test to determine
whether I have been exposed to Stoddard solvent? |
1.7 What recommendations has the federal
government made to protect human health? |
1.8 Where can I get more information? |
References |
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June 1995 |
Public Health Statement |
for |
Stoddard Solvent |
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This Public Health Statement is the
summary chapter from the Toxicological
Profile for Stoddard solvent. It is one in a series of
Public Health Statements about hazardous substances and their
health effects. A shorter version, the ToxFAQs™,
is also available. This information is important because this
substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous
substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed,
personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are
present. For more information, call the ATSDR Information
Center at 1-888-422-8737.
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This Statement was prepared to give you
information about Stoddard solvent and to emphasize the human
health effects that may result from exposure to it.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified 1,397
sites on its "National Priorities List" (NPL). Stoddard
solvent has been found in at least seven of these sites.
However, we do not know how many of the 1,397 NPL sites have
been evaluated for Stoddard solvent. As EPA evaluates
more sites, the number of sites at which Stoddard solvent
is found may change. This information is important for
you to know because Stoddard solvent may cause harmful health
effects and because these sites are potential or actual sources
of human exposure to Stoddard solvent.
When a chemical is released from a large
area, such as an industrial plant, or from a container, such
as a drum or bottle, it enters the environment as a chemical
emission. This emission, which is also called a release,
does not always lead to exposure. You can be exposed
to a chemical only when you come into contact with the chemical.
You may be exposed to it in the environment by breathing,
eating, or drinking substances containing the chemical or
by skin contact with it.
If you are exposed to a hazardous chemical
such as Stoddard solvent, several factors will determine whether
harmful health effects will occur and what the type and severity
of those health effects will be. These factors include
the dose (how much), the duration (how long), the route or
pathway by which you are exposed (breathing, eating, drinking,
or skin contact), the other chemicals to which you are exposed,
and your individual characteristics such as age, sex, nutritional
status, family traits, life-style, and state of health.
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1.1
What is Stoddard solvent? |
Stoddard solvent is a widely used, man-made
organic solvent that comes from the refining of crude oil.
It is a petroleum mixture made from distilled alkanes, cycloalkanes
(naphthenes), and aromatic compounds. The chemicals
in Stoddard solvent are similar to those in white spirits,
which are also discussed in this profile. Stoddard solvent
is commonly referred to as dry cleaning safety solvent, naphtha
safety solvent, petroleum solvent, PD-680, varnoline, and
spotting naphtha. It also goes by the registered trade
names Texsolve S and Varsol 1. Stoddard solvent is used
as a paint thinner, as a solvent in some types of photocopier
toners, in some types of printing inks, in some adhesives,
as a dry cleaning solvent, and as a general cleaner and degreaser.
It is produced and used as a colorless, flammable liquid but
will turn into a vapor (gas) at temperatures ranging from
150–200°C. Stoddard solvent smells and tastes like
kerosene. You can smell it when the level in the air
is about 0.34 parts of Stoddard solvent in a million parts
of air (ppm) or 2 milligrams of Stoddard solvent per cubic
meter of air (mg/m³).
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1.2
What happens to Stoddard solvent when it enters the environment? |
Stoddard solvent is a mixture of many
chemicals. Some of these evaporate into the air when
Stoddard solvent spills onto soils or surface waters.
These chemicals may be broken down by sunlight or by other
chemicals in the air. Also, some of these chemicals
may sorb (attach) to organic matter. Stoddard solvent
itself does not dissolve well in water, but some of the chemicals
in it do dissolve when it spills on surface water or when
it leaks from underground storage tanks. Some of the
chemicals in Stoddard solvent can attach to particles in soil
or water and, in water, may sink down to the sediment.
In water, soil, or sediment, microorganisms may break down
the chemicals (a process known as biodegradation). Although
some of the chemicals that make up Stoddard solvent can attach
to organic matter in the soil, if a large amount of Stoddard
solvent contaminates the soil, it will move through the soil
into groundwater. It is not known whether Stoddard solvent
will accumulate in plants or animals living in contaminated
soil or water, or in animals eating contaminated plants or
sediments. However, some of the chemicals that make
up the Stoddard solvent mixture might accumulate in these
situations, depending upon the type of chemical. Generally,
smaller alkanes do not tend to bioaccumulate, while aromatics
and larger alkanes, including some cycloalkanes, tend to bioaccumulate.
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1.3
How might I be exposed to Stoddard solvent? |
You are most likely to be exposed to
Stoddard solvent if you use a product, such as paint or a
paint thinner, that contains it and the vapors get in your
lungs or eyes. If you work in an industry that uses
or produces dry cleaning fluid, paints, coatings, waxes, or
equipment cleaning fluid with Stoddard solvent in it, you
may breathe in some of the components of Stoddard solvent
that evaporate into the air. You may be exposed to Stoddard
solvent if you breathe air that contains Stoddard solvent
after it has entered the atmosphere from a dry cleaning plant
or spilled or leaked onto soils or surface water. When
it is spilled, the different components that make up Stoddard
solvent will react differently in the different media of the
environment (for example, in soil, water, or air). So,
if you become exposed, you are no longer being exposed to
a single compound called Stoddard solvent but rather to its
components. You would only breathe the components that
evaporate into the air. If Stoddard solvent has contaminated
groundwater, you may be exposed if you drink this water or
use it for bathing or washing. If you use products that
contain Stoddard solvent and do not wear protective clothing,
you may be exposed if it gets on your skin.
Humans may be exposed to Stoddard solvent
near hazardous waste sites, but it is not known how many are
being exposed. It is unclear what routes of exposure
are most significant at hazardous waste sites. It is
likely that you might be exposed to Stoddard solvent near
a hazardous waste site by breathing it in the air. Although
some compounds in Stoddard solvent evaporate quickly, you
may be continually exposed near hazardous waste sites if the
material is leaking from buried or above-ground drums or is
slowly moving through the soil and seeping through the walls
of the basement of a building. If Stoddard solvent is
buried in leaky drums at hazardous waste sites, you may also
be exposed if you touch contaminated soil or if you drink
contaminated groundwater.
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1.4
How can Stoddard solvent enter and leave my body? |
Stoddard solvent can enter your body
if you breathe air containing it. When you breathe in
Stoddard solvent, it can quickly enter your bloodstream.
The chemical components that make up Stoddard solvent will
then be absorbed by different tissues in your body.
It may also enter the brain, and a large portion may be stored
in body fat. Stoddard solvent can also enter your body
if you come into contact with water that is contaminated with
it. However, we do not know where the components of
Stoddard solvent go once in the body after contact with your
skin or after drinking contaminated groundwater. Animal
studies have shown that these components can enter tissues
and the brain, as is the case with Stoddard solvent when it
is breathed in, but no human studies have been located to
verify this. Components of white spirits have been found,
however, in human blood and body fat after people breathed
it. We also do not know exactly how the mixture or its
components leave the body and how quickly this happens.
Some components or breakdown products probably leave in the
breath and urine within a few days after exposure.
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1.5
How can Stoddard solvent affect my health? |
Most of the information on how Stoddard
solvent affects human health comes from studies where exposure
is through breathing, with fewer studies available on exposure
to the eyes and skin. When Stoddard solvent is in the
air, it can cause eye, skin, or throat irritation. If
you were to breath in air containing Stoddard solvent, it
could affect your nervous system and might cause dizziness
or headaches. Another way that it can affect your nervous
system is by causing a prolonged reaction time. There
are few studies of the long-term effects of exposure to Stoddard
solvent alone in humans. In experiments with rats, cats,
and dogs (to suggest what may happen in humans), seizures
were reported after they breathed in large amounts for several
hours. Stoddard solvent can also cause bronchitis in
guinea pigs when they breathe it. However, Stoddard
solvent has not had these effects in the few known cases of
human exposure.
Studies with rats show that Stoddard
solvent may also cause kidney damage, but only in males.
This is because of its interaction with a protein that male
rats produce but which is not found in female rats.
Humans do not produce this protein either, so it is unlikely
that people would experience kidney damage. For the
following effects in humans or animals, either there were
no studies or the available studies did not associate the
effect with exposure to Stoddard solvent: birth defects,
reproductive effects (infertility), and immunological or lymphoreticular
effects.
Very few studies have been located that
study the carcinogenic (cancer-causing) effects of Stoddard
solvent in humans and animals. Stoddard solvent has
not been classified by the Department of Health and Human
Services (DHHS), EPA, or the International Agency for Research
on Cancer (IARC) (or by any other national or international
agencies) for carcinogenic effects in any exposure situation.
Little is known about the health effects
of Stoddard solvent in humans or animals when it is ingested
(swallowed); no studies have been found.
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1.6
Is there a medical test to determine whether I have been exposed
to Stoddard solvent? |
There is no routinely used test to show
whether you have been exposed to Stoddard solvent. However,
Stoddard solvent is a mixture of many chemicals, and for most
of them there are analytical methods to determine whether
exposure has occurred. These chemicals can be detected
in your breath, blood, urine, and fat. However, the
tests cannot tell you if you have been exposed to the specific
mixture of chemicals found in Stoddard solvent. These
methods also cannot tell you whether you will have any health
effects. It is unclear how long after exposure to Stoddard
solvent a test would be useful. Because Stoddard solvent
can be stored in fat, any resulting health effects may continue
for a few days after exposure.
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1.7
What recommendations has the federal government made to protect
human health? |
The government has developed regulations
and guidelines for Stoddard solvent that are designed to protect
the public from potential harmful health effects. Several
states have set their own regulations or guidelines for Stoddard
solvent concentrations in water and in ambient (surrounding)
air. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) regulates levels of hazardous material in the workplace.
The maximum allowable amount of Stoddard solvent in workroom
air during an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek, is 2,900 mg/m³
or 500 ppm. The National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends a limit of 350 mg/m³
or 60 ppm for workroom air for an 8-hour exposure.
The Department of Transportation has
identified Stoddard solvent as a hazardous substance and regulates
its packaging, shipping, and transportation. Some states
have transportation regulations for Stoddard solvent.
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1.8 Where can I get more information? |
If you have any more questions or concerns, please contact
your community or state health or environmental quality department or:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Division of Toxicology
1600 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop F-32
Atlanta, GA 30333
Information line and technical assistance:
Phone: 888-422-8737
FAX: (770)-488-4178
ATSDR can also tell you the location of occupational and environmental health
clinics. These clinics specialize in recognizing, evaluating, and treating illnesses
resulting from exposure to hazardous substances.
To order toxicological profiles, contact:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Phone: 800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000
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References |
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry (ATSDR). 1995. Toxicological
profile for Stoddard solvent. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service.
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