| Health Hazard | Detailed toxicological data may be found in RTECS(NIOSH 1986). Generally, azo dyes exhibitlow toxicity on test animals. Human toxicological data are scant. Some dyes exhibited mutagenic, carcinogenic, and teratogenicactions on animals. The cleaved couplingcomponents such as phenols or aromaticamines may be toxic. These can be formedwhen the dyes break down under specificreaction conditions.
IARC (2006) has classified a few dyes as“possibly carcinogenic to humans” under itsGroup 2B classification. These compoundsare Benzyl violet 4B , CI acidred 114 , CI basic red 9 [569-61-9], CI direct blue 15 , Cit rus red no. 2 , Disperse blue1 , HC blue no. 1 [2784-94-3], Oil orange SS , and Trypanblue . Also, IARC has listed somedyes as “nonclassifiable as to carcinogenic ity to human” in their Group 3 category. Thestudies on their carcinogenic effects wereinconclusive.
Such compounds include Brilliant blueFCF, disodium salt , CI acidorange 3 , CI pigment red 3, D&C red no. 9 ,Disperse yellow 3 , Fast greenFCF , Evans blue , HCblue no. 2 , HC red no. 3 [2871-01-4], HC yellow no. 4 , Lightgreen SF , Orange I ,Orange G , Rhodamine B [81-88-9], Rhodamine 6G , Scarletred , Sudan I , SudanII , Sudan III , Sudanbrown RR , Sudan red 7B [6368-72-5], Yellow AB , and Yellow OB. |