Xylenes teratogenicity

Hass, U. Jakobsen, B.M. (1993) Prenatal toxicity of xylene inhalation in the rat A teratogenicity and postnatal study. Pharmacol. Toxicol., 73, 20-23... 

Of the twenty potentially teratogenic chemicals listed in Table 1, the ones that appear to present most risk for the pregnant chemistry student are the organic liquids given in Table 2. Some of these (aniline, butanone, carbon disulfide, formaldehyde, and phenol) could easily be omitted from introductory laboratory courses. Benzene and toluene might be substituted by xylene (or perhaps by other hydrocarbons), and both chloroform and carbon tetrachloride could be replaced by methylene chloride. 

Women of child-bearing age should be careful when handling any substance of unknown properties. Certain substances are highly suspect teratogens and will cause abnormalities in an embryo or fetus. Among these are benzene, toluene, xylene, aniline, nitrobenzene, phenol, formaldehyde, dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), polychlori-... 

Some single organic solvents, for example, toluene, xylene, and ethanol, are known teratogens. Regretfully, many of the studies in the literature lump all organic solvent exposures together and fail to identify the specific... 

Marks TA, Ledoux TA, Moore JA. 1982. Teratogenicity of a commercial xylene mixture in the mouse. J Toxicol Environ Health 9 97-105. 

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