Toxicity Profile for Diethylenetriamine (1991)

Abstract

Diethylenetriamine was a potent skin sensitizer in man and guinea-pigs and may have induced asthma in an individual exposed to the vapour. It was severely irritant to the rabbit eye, and to the skin of rabbits and mice. On acute oral and/or dermal administration, its toxicity was moderate in rats, mice, guinea-pigs and rabbits. Repeated oral administration resulted in liver and kidney damage in rats, and effects on the blood and liver enzyme levels in rabbits. A limited dermal study in mice revealed no evidence of carcinogenicity. Diethylenetriamine caused chromosomal effects and DNA damage in mammalian cells in culture. Contradictory results were obtained in Ames bacterial tests, although a range of other genotoxicity assays gave no evidence of activity.