Triethanolamine

Adopted Exposure Standard:              5 mg/m³   TWA

                                                                        Sensitiser

NOHSC established the exposure standard for triethanolamine after May 1995.  

No standard should be applied without reference to Guidance on the interpretation of Workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants.

Note:    Exposure Standard Value: This exposure standard is adopted from the ACGIH TLVs list. Readers should refer to the relevant ACGIH⁽¹⁾ documentation for substantiation of this value.

Sensitiser Notation: After detailed review of the relevant literature, the Exposure Standards Expert Working Group has recommended that triethanolamine be designated as a sensitiser.   This documentation provides a summary of the relevant data to support the sensitiser notation.

1.          SENSITISATION

Shrank⁽²⁾ definitively identified triethanolamine as causing allergic contact dermatitis by carrying out patch test studies on a male lathe operator exposed to a cutting oil containing triethanolamine soap as a reaction product.   Alomar et al.⁽³⁾, using a 10 per cent triethanolamine aqueous solution, observed positive patch test results in 47 out 230 workers with occupational dermatitis in the metallurgic industry.   In other case reports^{(4 -6)}, allergic contact dermatitis and/or positive patch test reactions have also been observed with emulsions, topical preparations and cutting oils containing triethanolamine.

The Working Group is of the view that although there is limited data on sensitisation occurring in humans, there is however, sufficient evidence to support the sensitiser notation for this substance.

2.          RECOMMENDATION

The Working Group recommends that triethanolamine be designated with a sensitiser notation.   The reader is encouraged to review the chapter on ‘Sensitisers’ in the Guidance Note on the Interpretation of Exposure Standards for Atmospheric Contaminants in the Occupational Environment [NOHSC:3008(1995)]⁷ for a more detailed discussion of sensitisation.

REFERENCES

1.          American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, Supplements to the Documentation of the Threshold Limit Values 6^th edition, 1991.   American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1996.

2.          Shrank, A. B., ‘Allergy to cutting oil’, Contact Dermatitis, 12(4): 229, 1985.

3.          Alomar, A., Conde-Salazar, L., Romagurea, C., ‘Occupational dermatoses from cutting oils’, Contact Dermatitis, 12: 129-38, 1985.

4.          Tosti, A., Guerra, Morelli, R., Bardazzi, F., ‘Prevalence and sources of sensitisation to emulsifiers: a clinical study’, Contact Dermatitis, 23: 68-72, 1990.

5.          Conde-Salazar, L., Guimaraens, D., Romero, L. V., Harto, A., Gonzalez, M., ‘Occupational dermatitis from glass fiber’, Contact Dermatitis, 13(3): 195-96, 1985.

6.          Parrish, R. G., Wallingford, K. M., Health Hazard Evaluation Report No. HETA-83-107-1574, Dana Corporation, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Hazard Evaluations and Technical Assistance Branch, NIOSH, United States Department of Health and Human Services, Cincinnati Ohio, 1985. (NIOSHTIC database citation, 18 Jan 1995.)

7.          National Occupational Health and Safety Commission, Guidance Note on the Interpretation of Exposure Standards for Atmospheric Contaminants in the Occupational Environment, [NOHSC:3008(1995)], Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1995.

FURTHER READING TO SUPPORT DOCUMENTATION

1.          Angelini, G., Topical drugs.   In: Rycroft, R. J. G., Menne, T., Frosch, P. J., Benezra, C. eds.   Textbook of Contact Dermatitis, Springer-Verlag, pp 476-502, Berlin, 1992.

2.          Batten, T. L., Wakeel, R. A., Douglas, W. S., et al., ‘Contact dermatitis from the old formula E45 cream’, Contact Dermatitis, 30:159-61, 1994.

3.          De Groot, A. C., White, I. R., Cosmetics and skin care products.   In: Rycroft, R. J. G., Menne, T., Frosch, P. J., Benezra, C. eds.   Textbook of Contact Dermatitis, Springer-Verlag, pp 459-75, Berlin, 1992.

4.          Fisher, A. A., Vehicles and preservatives including formaldehyde, cosmetics and personal-care products.   In: Rietschel, R. L., Fowler, J. F. Jr. eds. Fisher’s Contact Dermatitis, 4th Ed, Williams and Wilkins, p 257-329, Baltimore, 1995.

5.          Hamilton, T. K., Zug, K. A., ‘Triethanolamine allergy inadvertently discovered from a fluorescent marking pen’, American Journal of Contact Dermatitis, 7(3): 164-65, 1996.

Documentation notice: Partial documentation is provided where the major part of the proposed exposure standard is supported by the documentation of the ACGIH^* but the proposed national standard differs from that recommended by the ACGIH in one or more details.

*American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), Documentation of Threshold Limit Values and Biological Exposure Indices, 6th Edition and 1996 supplements, ACGIH, Cincinatti, Ohio, 1991.