Toxicant and Disease Database

The CHE Toxicant and Disease Database is a searchable database that summarizes links between chemical contaminants and approximately 180 human diseases or conditions. Diseases and or toxicants can be viewed by utilizing the search options below. See a full description of the database and our methodology.

See also our compilation of other Databases and Resources

For questions or comments about the database, please contact us through our Contact form.

Select one of the following

Select a Disease Category

Select a Disease

Select a Toxicant

Search by CAS number

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Search by name

toluene

CAS number: 108-88-3

Diseases linked to this toxicant Grouped by strength of evidence

Strong Evidence Cranio-facial malformations Fetal alcohol syndrome / fetal solvent syndrome	Good Evidence Acute tubular necrosis Arrhythmias Cognitive impairment (includes impaired learning, impaired memory, and decreased attention span) / mental retardation / developmental delay Delayed growth Fetotoxicity (miscarriage / spontaneous abortion, stillbirth) Hearing loss Hormonal changes (levels of circulating sex hormones - FSH/LH, Inhibin, and/or estrogens, progesterones, androgens, prolactin) Low birth weight / small for gestational age / intra-uterine growth retardation Menstrual disorders (abnormal bleeding, short cycles, long cycles, irregular cycles, painful periods) Reduced fertility - female (infertility and subfertility) Scleroderma	Limited Evidence Abnormal sperm (morphology, motility, and sperm count) Acute hepatocellular injury (hepatitis)s Asthma - irritant Brain cancer - adult Color vision disturbance Colorectal cancer Decreased coordination / dysequilibrium Genito-urinary malformations (includes male and female) Immune suppression Neural tube defects / CNS malformations Neurosthenia (organic affective syndrome) Peripheral neuropathy Stomach cancer

NOTE: The toxicant–disease relationships shown above were last updated in 2011. The relationships shown here are still valid, but additional research has been conducted since that time. Additional research on this toxicant can be found at this link:

COMPARATIVE TOXICOGENOMICS DATABASE: CURATED RESULTS

This link will direct your search to an external database, the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD). This database is different from, and complementary to, our database.

More information about sources and methods

CHE’s Toxicant and Disease Database evaluates existing evidence and categorizes that evidence based on its strength. It is constructed using expert judgment and epidemiological causal inference.
The CTD, in contrast, is a continually updated resource that presents information on a broad range of literature on chemical-disease relationships. It also provides data on genes, biological processes, and phenotypes related to chemicals and diseases. It does not categorize information based on strength of evidence, include an expert judgment process, or draw causal conclusions about toxicant-disease relationships.
The link we have provided on this page goes directly to CTD's curated results, which are a subset of the information available through CTD. Curated results in CTD are those for which studies are available on the toxicant-disease relationship.

References for our 2011 disease list

Hruska KS, Furth PA, Seifer DB, Sharara FI, Flaws JA. Environmental factors in infertility. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2000 Dec;43(4):821-9.

Klaassen CD, Ed. Casarett and Doull's Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons, 6th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill 2001.

Kukull WA, Larson EB et al. Solvent exposure as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease: a case-control study. American Journal of Epidemiology. 1995 Jun 1;141(11):1059-71; discussion 1072-9.

LaDou J, Ed. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 3rd Edition. New York: Lange Medical/McGraw-Hill Company, 2004.

Landrigan PJ, Garg A. Chronic effects of toxic environmental exposures on children's health. Journal of Toxicology. Clinical Toxicology. 2002;40(4):449-56.

Leikin JB, Davis A, Klodd DA, Thunder T, Kelafant GA, Paquette DL, Rothe MJ, Rubin R. Selected topics related to occupational exposures. Part V. Occupational cardiovascular disease. Disease-a-Month. 2000 Apr;46(4):311-322.

Leikin JB, Davis A et al. Selected topics related to occupational exposures. Part IV. Occupational liver disease. Disease-a-Month. 2000 Apr;46(4):296-310.

Lynge E, Anttila A, Hemminki K. Organic solvents and cancer. Cancer Causes and Control. 1997 May;8(3):406-19.

Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (California Proposition 65).

Rom WM. Environmental and Occupational Medicine, 3rd Edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Publishers, 1998.

Dig Deeper

Human environmental disease network: a computational model to assess toxicology of contaminants

About This Database

See a description of database methods, definitions and limitations.

Information in this database was originally drawn from these texts:

Klaassen CD, Ed. Casarett and Doull's Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons, 6th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001.
LaDou J. Ed. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 3rd Edition. New York: Lange Medical/McGraw-Hill Company, 2004.
Rom WM. Environmental and Occupational Medicine, 3rd Edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Publishers, 1998.

Further references are or will be posted with the displays of individual toxicants.