In man, ethanolamine has caused skin and respiratory tract irritation and eye injury. It induced asthmatic reactions in several individuals and may also be a skin sensitizer. Inhalation exposure has apparently resulted in liver damage in workers.
Ethanolamine caused irritation and injury when instilled into the rabbit eye. In various species of laboratory animal, it irritated and damaged the skin (when in liquid or vapour form) and produced respiratory tract irritation (when inhaled). Ethanolamine's acute oral and dermal toxicity in rodents and rabbits was low to moderate. The target sites for ethanolamine (particularly in repeated inhalation studies) included the central nervous system, gastro-intestinal tract, liver, kidney, spleen, lung and blood in various species of laboratory animal.
An increase in foetal toxicity and malformations has been reported following oral administration to pregnant rats at doses not overtly toxic to the mothers. Sperm formation was suppressed in dogs and guinea-pigs after exposure by inhalation. In general, there was no convincing evidence of activity in a range of genotoxicity screening assays although a Soviet study claimed that it was a weak inducer of chromosome damage in human blood cells in culture.
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