Atrazine Among Five Chemicals with New Skin Notation Profiles
Last week, NIOSH published skin notation profiles for five chemicals, including the herbicide atrazine and pentachlorophenol, or PCP, which is used as a wood preservative. PCP has also historically been one of the most widely used biocides in the U.S. New skin notation profiles for the chemicals sodium fluoroacetate, chlorinated camphere, and catechol are also available. According to EPA, sodium fluoroacetate is an organofluorine compound used primarily as a predacide against coyotes that prey on farm animals. Chlorinated camphene was used primarily as an insecticide before it was banned by EPA in 1990. And ACGIH describes catechol as a chemical used primarily as an antioxidant in rubber, dye fat, and oil industries. Catechol is also used in pesticides, pharmaceutical ingredients, and aroma chemicals.
Skin notation profiles are agency-authored technical documents that provide information supplemental to chemicals’ skin notations, including summaries of all relevant data used to help determine the hazards associated with skin exposures. Each skin notation profile includes a brief summary of epidemiological and toxicological data associated with skin contact with a chemical and the rationale behind the chemical’s hazard-specific skin notation assignment.
NIOSH skin notations offer warnings about the direct, systemic, and sensitizing effects of chemical exposures to the skin. All skin notation profiles are currently available via the NIOSH website. To learn more about the NIOSH strategy for assigning skin notations, see NIOSH Current Intelligence Bulletin 61.