1.1 What is isophorone? |
1.2 How might I be exposed to isophorone? |
1.3 How can isophorone enter and leave
my body? |
1.4 How can isophorone affect my health? |
1.5 What levels of exposure have resulted
in harmful health effects? |
1.6 Is there a medical test to determine
whether I have been exposed to isophorone? |
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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December 1989 |
Public Health Statement |
for |
Isophorone |
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This Public Health Statement is the
summary chapter from the Toxicological
Profile for isophorone. 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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1.1
What is isophorone? |
Isophorone is a clear liquid with a peppermint-like
odor. It evaporates faster than water but slower than charcoal
starter or paint thinner, and it will not mix completely with
water. Isophorone is a manmade chemical for use commercially,
but it has been found to occur naturally in cranberries. It
is used as a solvent in some printing inks, paints, lacquers,
and adhesives. Isophorone does not remain in the air very
long, but can remain in water for possibly more than 20 days.
The length of time that isophorone will remain in soil is
not known, but it probably is about the same as the length
of time it remains in water.
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1.2
How might I be exposed to isophorone? |
Exposure to isophorone may take place
where you work or in very low concentrations at home. Because
it is used in some inks, paints, lacquers, and adhesives,
people who work with these products may be exposed to isophorone.
Isophorone has been found in the drinking
water of Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and New Orleans at amounts
less than 10 parts of isophorone in 1 billion parts of water
(10 ppb). In one instance (a screen print shop), isophorone
was found in amounts as high as 26 parts in 1 million parts
of air (26 ppm), but the usual amounts in the workplace are
much lower. At this time, isophorone has been found in at
least 9 out of 1177 National Priorities List (NPL) hazardous
waste sites in the United States. Exposure to isophorone at
these sites may occur by touching contaminated soil, water,
or sediment.
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1.3
How can isophorone enter and leave my body? |
Isophorone can enter your body if you
breathe its vapor, have skin contact with it, drink contaminated
water, or eat contaminated food. If isophorone is present
at a waste site near homes that use local wells as a source
of water, the well water could be contaminated with isophorone.
Experiments in animals show that after doses by mouth, isophorone
enters easily and spreads to many organs of the body, but
most of it leaves the body within 24 hours in the breath and
in urine. Isophorone may enter the lungs of workers exposed
to isophorone where it is used indoors as a solvent. Isophorone
disappears quickly from outside air, so the chance of breathing
outdoor air contaminated with isophorone is small. If isophorone
is spilled at a waste site and evaporates, however, a person
nearby may breathe isophorone before it disappears from the
air. In addition, soil around waste sites may contain isophorone,
and a person, such as a child playing in the dirt, may eat
or have skin contact with the contaminated soil. How much
isophorone enters the body through the skin is not known.
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1.4
How can isophorone affect my health? |
The only effects of isophorone reported
in humans are irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat,
and possibly dizziness and fatigue. These effects have occurred
in workers who breathe vapors of isophorone and other solvents
during use in the printing industry. Short-term exposure of
animals to high vapor amounts and short- or long-term exposure
of animals to high doses by mouth cause death or a shortened
lifespan. Short-term exposure to high amounts of vapors or
high doses by mouth has caused inactivity and coma in animals.
Inconclusive studies suggested that isophorone may have caused
birth defects and growth retardation in the offspring of rats
and mice that breathed the vapors during pregnancy.
Some harmful health effects were seen
in adult female animals in these studies. It is not known
whether isophorone could cause birth defects in humans. In
a long-term study in which rats and mice were given high doses
of isophorone by mouth, the male rats developed kidney disease
and kidney tumors. Male rats also developed tumors in a reproductive
gland. Some male mice developed tumors in the liver, in connective
tissue, and in lymph glands (tissues of the body that help
fight disease), but the evidence was not strong. It is not
known whether isophorone causes cancer in humans.
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1.5
What levels of exposure have resulted in harmful health effects? |
Odor is first notice at about 0.2 ppm.
This means that you can probably smell isophorone before you
would have harmful health effects.
Eye, nose, and throat irritation have
been seen in people at isophorone levels of 25 ppm from short-term
exposures, and fatigue and depression from long-term exposure
have been seen at 5 ppm.
The levels of isophorone in air that
cause death and lung congestion in animals are much higher
than the amounts that workers breathe in industry when using
isophorone as a solvent. The amount that causes lung irritation
in animals is about the same as the amount that causes eye,
nose, and throat irritation in humans. Skin irritation or
eye damage has occurred in animals after a few drops of isophorone
was applied directly to the skin or eyes.
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1.6
Is there a medical test to determine whether I have been exposed
to isophorone? |
No medical test is known to determine
human exposure to isophorone. A few studies in rats and rabbits
have shown that isophorone and its metabolites can be found
in the urine of these animals, so it may be possible to find
a method for testing the urine of humans to determine exposure
to isophorone. It is not known, however, whether such a measurement
would predict how much exposure had occurred or the possible
health effects.
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1.7
What recommendations has the federal government made to protect
human health? |
The EPA recommends that levels in lakes
and streams should be limited to 8.4 ppb to prevent possible
health effects from drinking water or eating fish contaminated
with isophorone.
The EPA requires that discharges, spills,
or accidental releases of 5,000 pounds or more of isophorone
must be reported to the EPA.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) has set a permissible exposure limit of 140 milligrams
of isophorone per cubic meter of air (140 mg/m³)
for an 8-hour workday in a 40-hour workweek.
The federal recommendations have been
updated as of July 1999.
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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
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Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry (ATSDR). 1989. Toxicological
profile for isophorone. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, Public Health Service.
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