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NAPTHALENE*
Characteristics
Naphthalene is a white solid that evaporates easily. Fuels such as petroleum and coal contain naphthalene. It is also called white tar, and tar camphor, and has been used in mothballs and moth flakes. Burning tobacco or wood produces naphthalene. It has a strong, but not unpleasant smell. The major commercial use of naphthalene is in the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics. Its major consumer use is in moth repellents and toilet deodorant blocks.
Sources of exposure
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Breathing low levels in outdoor air
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Breathing air contaminated from industrial discharges or smoke from burning wood, tobacco, or fossil fuels
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Using or making moth repellents, coal tar products, dyes or inks could expose you tothese chemicals in the air
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Drinking water from contaminated wells
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Touching fabrics that are treated with moth repellents containing naphthalene
Effects on health
Exposure to large amounts of naphthalene may damage or destroy some of your red blood cells. This could cause you to have too few red blood cells until your body replaces the destroyed cells. This condition is called hemolytic anemia. Some symptoms of hemolytic anemia are fatigue, lack of appetite, restlessness, and pale skin. Exposure to large amounts of naphthalene may also cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, blood in the urine, and a yellow color to the skin. Animals sometimes develop cloudiness in their eyes after swallowing high amounts of naphthalene. It is not clear whether this also develops in people. Rats and mice that breathed naphthalene vapors daily for a lifetime developed irritation and inflammation of their nose and lungs. It is unclear if naphthalene causes reproductive effects in animals; most evidence says it does not. Naphthalene is considered a chemical which is “reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogen.” The US Environmental Protection Agency has determined that naphthalene is a possible human carcinogen.
Effects on children
Hospitals have reported many cases of hemolytic anemia in children, including newborns and infants, who either ate naphthalene mothballs or deodorants cakes or who were in close contact with clothing or blankets stored in naphthalene mothballs. Naphthalene can move from a pregnant woman's blood to the unborn baby's blood. Naphthalene has been detected in some samples of breast milk from the general U.S. population, but not at levels that are expected to be of concern. There is no information on whether naphthalene has affected development in humans. No developmental abnormalities were observed in the offspring from rats, mice, and rabbits fed naphthalene during pregnancy. We do not have any information on possible health effects of 1-methylnaphthalene or 2-methylnaphthalene on children.
Recommendations
The EPA recommends that children not drink water with over 0.5 parts per million (0.5 ppm)naphthalene for more than 10 days or over 0.4 ppm for any longer than 7 years. Adults should not drink water with more than 1 ppm for more than 7 years. For water consumed over a lifetime (70 years), the EPA suggests that it contain no more than 0.1 ppm naphthalene.
* Compiled by Elizabeth Limbrick, New Jersey Institute of Technology Technical Assistance to Brownfield Communities (TAB) Program. Source: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 2005