IPCS INCHEM Home

International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) - Summaries & Evaluations

meta- AND para-CRESIDINE

VOL.: 27 (1982) (p. 91)

meta-Cresidine
CAS No.: 102-50-0
Chem. Abstr. Name: Benzenamine, 4-methoxy-2-methyl-

para-Cresidine
CAS No.: 120-71-8
Chem. Abstr. Name: Benzenamine, 2-methoxy-5-methyl-

5. Summary of Data Reported and Evaluation

5.1 Experimental data

meta- and para-Cresidine (technical grades) were tested in mice and rats by dietary administration. In the only experiment in rats with meta-cresidine, it produced an increased incidence of transitional-cell carcinomas of the urinary bladder in males. The results of the study in mice were inconclusive. para-Cresidine produced malignant tumours of the urinary bladder in both mice and rats, olfactory neuroblastomas in rats of both sexes and liver tumours in male rats; it also produced nasal cavity tumours in male mice and liver-cell tumours in female mice.

Technical-grade meta-cresidine was not mutagenic to Salmonella typhimurium or Escherichia coli. para-Cresidine was mutagenic to S. typhimurium after metabolic activation.

5.2 Human data

Although meta-cresidine is produced commercially, the extent to which humans are exposed to it is unknown.

para-Cresidine has been produced commercially since 1926. Its use as a dye intermediate could result in occupational exposure, and such exposure may have increased markedly in recent years as a result of the greater production of para-cresidine-based food dyes.

No case report or epidemiological study was available to the Working Group.

5.3 Evaluation

The available data were inadequate to evaluate the carcinogenicity of meta-cresidine in experimental animals. No evaluation of the carcinogenicity of meta-cresidine to humans could be made.

There is sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of para-cresidine in experimental animals. In the absence of data on humans, para-cresidine should be regarded, for practical purposes, as if it presented a carcinogenic risk to humans.

For definition of the italicized terms, see Preamble Evaluation.

Subsequent evaluation: Suppl. 7 (1987) (p. 61: meta-Cresidine - Group 3; para-Cresidine - Group 2B)

Synonyms for meta-Cresidine

Synonyms for para-Cresidine


Last updated: 8 April 1998



























    See Also:
       Toxicological Abbreviations