Toxicity Profile for Magnesium hydroxide (1993)

Abstract

In man, magnesium hydroxide can cause eye damage. It is of low acute oral toxicity in humans. The principal effect at high doses is diarrhoea, although other symptoms may occur in subjects with poor kidney function, in whom urinary excretion of magnesium is impaired. Magnesium hydroxide was of low acute oral toxicity in rodents. Tumours in the lungs and elsewhere have been reported in rats exposed to fibrous brucite (a naturally occurring form of magnesium hydroxide) by inhalation or injection, but in at least some of the studies these were probably due to contamination with chrysotile asbestos. On oral administration to rats, magnesium hydroxide was able to decrease the number of colon tumours induced by a known carcinogen. Magnesium hydroxide was not genotoxic in two bacterial assays (including the Ames test).