Toxic Substances

Name:
Toxic Substances
Detailed information:
The following list includes a number of chemical individuals and groups that are generally regarded as having toxic properties by ingestion, inhalation, or absorption via the skin. There is considerable variation in the degree of toxicity among these, and the listing is by no means exhaustive.See Toxicity.
Individuals	Groups
aniline	aldehydes
asbestos (carcinogen)	alkaloids
benzidine (carcinogen)	allyl compounds
benzpyrene (carcinogen)	arsenic and compounds
carbon monoxide	barium and soluble
chlorine	compounds
coal tar pitch (carcinogen)	barbiturates
cresol	beryllium and soluble
hydrogen peroxide	compounds
hydrogen sulfide	chlorinated hydrocarbons
methanol	chromium (hexavalent
nickel carbonyl	carcinogenic compounds)
osmium tetroxide	corrosive materials
oxalic acid	cyanides
ozone	cadmium and compounds
phenol	fluorine and compounds
pyrene	lead compounds
pyridine	mercury and compounds
phosphine	organic phosphate esters
stibine	radioactive substances
sulfur dioxide	selenium and compounds
vinyl chloride monomer (carcinogen)	thallium and compounds
	tin (organic compounds)
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) passed by the U.S. Congress in 1976 provides the legal basis for regulations concerning all aspects of the manufacture of such products. Establishment and enforcement of such regulations are carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists issues a periodically revised list of Threshold Limit Values for substances in workroom air, upon which the industrial safety standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are based. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for the enforcement of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Decisions made by these agencies are arrived at only after extensive testing by both manufacturers and independent groups. Effective control of toxic materials has assumed increasing importance in recent years and may be expected to become still more rigorous.See Poison; NIOSH.A Toxicology Data Bank (TDB) has been established by the National Library of Medicine of NIH. The data are set up in a computer-based on-line file available for public use. Extensive physical data are included.Additional information can be found in Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials, 11th Edition, Richard J. Lewis, Sr., Editor, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This book contains 25,000 entries, each of which gives physical, chemical, and toxicological data about potentially hazardous materials.