Carbon disulfide health effects

The problem of finding a suitable solvent is more serious in the infrared region, where it is difficult to find one that is completely transparent. The use of either carbon tetrachloride or carbon disulfide (health effects aside) will cover the most widely used region of 2.5 to 15 tm (see Figure 16.4). Water exhibits strong absorption bands in the infrared region, and it can be employed only for certain portions of the spectrum. Also, special cell materials compatible with water must be used rock salt is usually used in cells for infrared measurements because glass absorbs the radiation, but rock salt would dissolve in water. The solvents must be moisture-free if rock salt cells are used. 

The hazards of chemicals are commonly detected in the workplace first, because exposure levels there are higher than in the general environment. In addition, the exposed population is well known, which allows early detection of the association between deleterious health effects and the exposure. The toxic effects of some chemicals, such as mercury compounds and soot, have been known already for centuries. Already at the end of the eighteenth century, small boys who were employed to climb up the inside of chimneys to clean them suffered from a cancer of the scrotum due to exposure to soot. This was the first occupational cancer ever identified. In the viscose industry, exposure to carbon disulfide was already known to cause psychoses among exposed workers during the nineteenth century. As late as the 1970s, vinyl chloride was found to induce angiosarcoma of the liver, a tumor that was practically unknown in ocher instances. ... 

Gray LC University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX The effects of lead and carbon disulfide on the measurement of cognitive and sensory function (chick model) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences... 

Tolonen M Vascular effects of carbon disulfide A review. Scand J Work Environ Health 1 63, 1975... 

Kotseva K, Braeckman L, De Bacquer D, et al Cardiovascular effects in viscose rayon workers exposed to carbon disulfide. Int J Occup Environ Health 7(1) 7-13, 2001... 

Zhou SY, Liang YX, Chen ZQ, Wang YL Effects of occupational exposure to low-level carbon disulfide (CS2) on menstruation and pregnancy. Ind Health 26 203-214, 1988... 

Emissions. An environmental assessment has been carried out to evaluate the effects of sulfur-asphalt during and after construction. Ambient air samples were taken from points around the pugmill and paver and analyzed for hydrogen sulfide (H2S), sulfur dioxide (S02), carbon disulfide (CS2), carbonyl sulfide (COS), mercaptans (RSH), and total hydrocarbons. The results indicated that no problems exist in terms of current health standards during construction or after. Typical test results obtained at the pugmill and methods used are given in Table II. 

Exposure to neurotoxicants or neurotoxic chemical substances causes severe adverse health effects to the nervous system, which is very sensitive to organometallic compounds and sulfide compounds. These compounds disrupt the normal functioning of the central nervous system, peripheral nerves or sensory organs, and the conduction of nerve impulses. Thus, chemical substances are considered neurotoxicants when they induce a consistent pattern of neural dysfunction. The chemical substances include but are not limited to carbon disulfide, manganese, methyl mercury, organic phosphorous insecticides, tetraethyl lead, thallium, and trialkyl tin compounds. 

Toxicity and health effects Exposure to high concentrations of carbon disulfide causes deleterious effects that include headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, fatigue, chest pains, blurred vision, delirium, neurophysiological changes, reduced nerve condnetion velocity, peripheral neuropathy, polyneuropathy, convulsions, and problems with brain, liver, heart. After pregnant rats breathed carbon disnlfide in the air, some of the newborn rats died or had birth defects. High concentrations of carbon disnlfide have caused skin bnrns when the chemical accidentally tonched people s skin. - ... 

There are many air pollutants, and the composition and level depend on several factors. Air pollutants cause a range of adverse health and environmental effects. These pollutants include ammonia, carbon dioxide, carbon disulfide, carbon monoxide, chlorine, cyanide and cyanide compounds, cyanogen, diborane, fluorine and flourine... 

This public health statement tells you about carbon disulfide and the effects of exposure. 

There is no information on health effects in people who eat food or drink water contaminated with carbon disulfide. Animals fed food that contained carbon disulfide developed liver and heart disease, and some showed abnormal behavior. These amounts, however, were very much higher than those that occur in drinking water supplies. When pregnant animals received large doses of carbon disulfide in their diet, some of the newborns died or had birth defects. 

Estimates of exposure levels posing minimal risk to humans (Minimal Risk Levels or MRLs) have been made for carbon disulfide. An MRL is defined as an estimate of daily human exposure to a substance that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of adverse effects (noncarcinogenic) over a specified duration of exposure. MRLs are derived when reliable and sufficient data exist to identify the target organ(s) of effect or the most sensitive health effect(s) for a specific duration within a given route of exposure. MRLs are based on noncancerous health effects only and do not consider carcinogenic effects. MRLs can be derived for acute, intermediate, and chronic duration exposures for inhalation and oral routes. Appropriate methodology does not exist to develop MRLs for dermal exposure. 

Carbon disulfide can exist in air as vapor. Table 2-1 and Figure 2-1 summarize the available quantitative information on the health effects that have been observed in humans and animals following inhalation exposure to carbon disulfide. All exposure levels are expressed as parts per million (ppm). In many workplace exposures, exposure could be by inhalation and skin exposure, rather than inhalation exposure alone. 

No studies were located regarding the following health effects in humans or animals after dermal exposure to carbon disulfide ... 

There are substantial data available on which to base conclusions regarding the potential health effects of carbon disulfide exposure in residents near hazardous waste sites and occupationally exposed individuals. The principal adverse health effects noted in humans exposed via inhalation are neurotoxic and... 

The following are proposed as likely biomarkers of effect for carbon disulfide however, more information about their possible correlation with actual carbon disulfide exposure and their reliability and consistency is necessary before they can be utilized to indicate level or duration of exposure or predict potential health... 

Because it appears that one common mechanism of the cerebral, cardiovascular, and hepatic effects may be an acceleration of the arteriosclerotic process (see Section 2.4), individuals at risk for arteriosclerosis or those with early arteriosclerosis would probably be at increased risk for health effects following exposure to carbon disulfide (NIOSH 1978). The mechanism for carbon disulfide acceleration of arteriosclerotic plaque formation involves direct injury to the vessel endothelium and changes in lipid metabolism. 

Section 104(i)(5) of CERCLA, as amended, directs the Administrator of ATSDR (in consultation with the Administrator of EPA and agencies and programs of the Public Health Service) to assess whether adequate information on the health effects of carbon disulfide is available. Where adequate information is not available, ATSDR, in conjunction with the National Toxicology Program (NTP), is required to assure the initiation of a program of research designed to determine the health effects (and techniques for developing methods to determine such health effects) of carbon disulfide. 

Existing Information on Health Effects of Carbon Disulfide... 

Current disposal methods include liquid injection incineration, rotary kiln incineration, fluidized bed incineration, and air stripping (HSDB 1995), however, data on the efficiency of these methods are lacking. This information will be useful in identifying the media of concern for human exposure and populations at risk of adverse health effects from exposure to carbon disulfide. 

Reliable and current monitoring data for the levels of carbon disulfide in contaminated media at hazardous waste sites are needed so that the information obtained on levels of carbon disulfide in the environment can be used in combination with the known body burden of carbon disulfide to assess the potential risk of adverse health effects in populations living in the vicinity of hazardous waste sites. 

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the analytical methods that are available for detecting, and/or measuring, and/or monitoring carbon disulfide, its metabolites, and other biomarkers of exposure and effect to carbon disulfide. The intent is not to provide an exhaustive list of analytical methods. Rather, the intention is to identify well-established methods that are used as the standard methods of analysis. Many of the analytical methods used for environmental samples are the methods approved by federal agencies and organizations such as EPA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Other methods presented in this chapter are those that are approved by groups such as the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) and the American Public Health Association (APHA). 

EPA. 1985d. Assessment of the mutagenic potential of carbon disulfide, carbon tetrachloride, dichloromethane, ethylene dichloride, and methyl bromide A comparative analysis in relation to ethylene dibromide. Washington, DC U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Health and Environmental Assessment, Reproductive Effects Group. EPA/600/21 NTIS PB85-241800. 

EPA. 1986b Health and environmental effects profile for carbon disulfide. Cincinnati, OH U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office. EPA/600/X-86/155, 129. 

Knave B, Kolmodin-Nedman B, Persson HE. 1974. Chronic exposure to carbon disulfide Effects on occupationally exposed workers with special reference to the nervous system. Work Environ Health 11 49-58. 

NIOSH. 1984a. Health effects of occupational exposure to carbon disulfide. Cincinnati, OH U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. NTIS/PB85-110229. 

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