PAN Pesticides Database - Chemicals

Arsenic trioxide - Identification, toxicity, use, water pollution potential, ecological toxicity and regulatory information

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Chemical Identification and Use for Arsenic trioxide

Basic Identification Information About This Chemical

Additional Resources About This Chemical Class and Use Type

Historical Use of this Chemical

Other Names for this Chemical
About Chemical Synonyms

Products Containing This Chemical

Signs and Symptoms of Arsenic trioxide Poisoning

Arsenic trioxide is a Arsenical compound.

Symptoms of Poisoning with Arsenical Compounds

- Garlic odor of breath and feces, metallic taste in mouth.
- Adverse GI effects predominate with vomiting, abdominal pain and rice-water or bloody diarrhea. GI effects may also include inflammation, vesicle formation and eventual sloughing of the mucosa in the mouth, pharynx and esophagus.
- Central nervous system effects are common: headache, dizziness, drowsiness and confusion.
- Symptoms may progress to include muscle weakness and spasms, hypothermia, lethargy, delirium, coma and convulsions.
- Renal injury is manifest as proteinuria, hematuria, glycosuria, oliguria, casts in the urine and in severe poisoning cases, acute tubular necrosis.
- Cardiovascular effects include shock, cyanosis and cardiac arrhythmia.
- Liver damage may be manifested by elevated liver enzymes and jaundice.
- Injury to blood-forming tissues may cause anemia, leucopenia and thrombocytopenia.
Chronic exposure may lead to:
- Muscle weakness, fatigue, anorexia, weight loss.
- Hyperpigmentation, hyperkeratosis.
- Peripheral neuropathy, paresthesia, paresis and ataxia.
- Inability to coordinate voluntary muscular movements.
- Subcutaneous edema in face, eyelids, and ankles.
- Stomatitis, white striations across the nails (Mees lines) and sometimes loss of nails or hair.
- Liver toxicity as indicated by hepatomegaly, jaundice, cirrhosis.
- Renal toxicity leading to oliguria, proteinuria, and hematuria.
- EKG abnormalities and peripheral vascular disease.
- Hematologic abnormalities.
- Cancer.

Symptoms of Arsenic trioxide Exposure from the International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSC)

NOTE! PREVENT DISPERSION OF DUST! AVOID ALL CONTACT! AVOID EXPOSURE OF (PREGNANT) WOMEN!

Toxicity Information for Arsenic trioxide

  Note: Information for many chemicals is incomplete and may not be fully representative of effects on humans. Why?

Summary Toxicity Information

Detailed Toxicity Information

This Chemical

Parent Chemical 

Acute Toxicity ²

Cancer Information

Endocrine Disruption

Reproductive and Developmental Toxicity

Chemicals of Special Concern

Water Pollution Potential and Criteria for Arsenic trioxide

Water Pollution Potential

This Chemical

Parent Chemical

Physical Property Data Related to Water Contamination Potential

Sorry, no water quality standards or criteria have been established for this chemical by the U.S. or Canadian governments; however, there may be criteria established for related chemicals.

Regulatory Information for Arsenic trioxide

International Regulatory Status

This Chemical

Parent Chemical 

U.S. and California Regulatory Status

Maximum Tolerance and Residue Levels

Ecotoxicity for Arsenic trioxide

Note! Information for many chemicals is incomplete and may not be fully representative of effects on the environment. Why? Click on underlined terms for definitions and additional information.

Aquatic Ecotoxicity

All Toxic Effects for Organism Group

Summary of Acute Toxicity for Organism Group

Terrestrial Ecotoxicity

Summary of Acute Toxicity for Organism Group

Sorry, no honeybee acute toxicity data available for this chemical. Try related chemicals.

Honeybee Chronic Toxicity

Related Chemicals for Arsenic trioxide

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* Data marked with an asterisk indicates that this chemical is not explicitly listed on the corresponding list. Instead, it belongs to a group of chemicals that IS designated on the list. For example, if an agency assigns a classification of reproductive toxicant to "mercury compounds", that classification is applied to all mercury compounds in the PAN Pesticide database, which are then marked with an asterisk.

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