Illnesses linked to trichloroethylene aka TCE aka TRIKE
CAS number: 79-01-6
Diseases linked to this toxicant grouped by strength of evidence.
Strong Evidence
- Acute hepatocellular injury (hepatitis)*
Good Evidence
- Acute tubular necrosis
- Arrhythmias
- Autoimmune antibodies (positive ANA, anti-DNA, RF, etc.)*
- Cardiac congenital malformations*
- Childhood leukemias
- Cirrhosis*
- Cognitive impairment (includes impaired learning, impaired memory, and decreased attention span) / mental retardation / developmental delay*
- Decreased coordination / dysequilibrium
- Fetotoxicity (miscarriage / spontaneous abortion, stillbirth)*
- Hearing loss*
- Hepatocellular cancer (liver cancer)*
- Lymphoma (non-Hodgkin’s)*
- Psychiatric disturbances (disorientation, hallucinations, psychosis, delirium, paranoias, anxiety/depression, emotional lability, mood changes, euphoria)*
- Renal (kidney) cancer*
- Scleroderma
- Trigeminal neuropathy
Limited Evidence
- ADD/ADHD, hyperactivity*
- Adult-onset leukemias*
- Brain cancer – adult*
- Breast cancer*
- Cervical cancer
- Choanal atresia
- Genito-urinary malformations (includes male and female)
- Hodgkin’s disease (lymphoma)*
- Immune suppression
- Low birth weight / small for gestational age / intra-uterine growth retardation
- Lung cancer*
- Multiple myeloma*
- Nephrotic syndrome
- Neural tube defects / CNS malformations
- Oral clefts (cleft lip and palate)
- Pancreatic cancer*
- Pancreatitis
- Peripheral neuropathy*
- Prostate cancer*
- Raynaud’s phenomenon
- Systemic lupus erythematosus*
- Testicular cancer*
Illnesses marked thus * have been suffered by Irish Air Corps personnel or their offspring.
https://www.healthandenvironment.org/our-work/toxicant-and-disease-database/about-the-toxicant-and-disease-database —- As this link advises that the CHE Database was last updated in 2011, all interested parties should note that it should only be used as (a very good base) starting point for further investigations as science and research has moved on a pace since then.
As an example, one should consider the often undersatted and nearly forgotton Phosgene gas and which first came to the fore in WW1.
https://www.healthandenvironment.org/our-work/toxicant-and-disease-database/?showcategory=&showdisease=&showcontaminant=2637&showcas=&showkeyword=
Phosgene was never as notorious in the public consciousness as mustard gas, but it killed far more people: about 85% of the 90,000 deaths caused by chemical weapons during World War I . (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_in_World_War_I)
This is seldom seen linked to TCE and yet it is a breakdown product of TCE once it’s heated up by lets say a soldering iron or arc welders. In this case, the CHE database results are brief and few but it proves less can be more.
And sure then no report about soldering would be complete without giving “flux” a mention. back in the day, the flux wass normally rosin-based, and derived from resin contained in pine trees. When heated, the flux gives off a fume known as colophony, which is a complex mix of gases and particulates. Typically, the particulates constitute about 95% of the fume volume, while the remaining 5% consists of vapours that include Acetone, Methyl Alcohol, Formaldehyde, Methane, Carbon Dioxide, Diterpine Acid, Carbon Monoxide, and Isopropyl Alcohol. (http://blog.okinternational.com/metcal/the-health-risks-of-solder-flux-fumes (2017) ).
And of course as we all know, “particulates are the in thing” in all toxilogical matters these days!