SDS

Safety Data Sheet
Sikaflex® Construction Sealant
Revision Date 10/13/2022
Print Date 10/14/2022
10 / 14
Mouse, oral, duration 2 years
Effect: no tumors
Mouse, dermal, duration 18 months
Effect: no skin tumors
Rat, inhalation, duration 2 years
Target organ: lungs
Effect: inflammation, fibrosis, tumors
Note: Tumors in the rat lung are considered to be related to
the "particle overload phenomenon" rather than to a specific
chemical effect of carbon black itself in the lung. These ef-
fects in rats have been reported in many studies on other
poorly soluble inorganic particles and appear to be rat specif-
ic. Tumors have not been observed in other species (i.e.,
mouse and hamster) for carbon black or other poorly soluble
particles under similar circumstances and study conditions.
Mortality studies (human data): A study on carbon black pro-
duction workers in the UK (Sorahan, 2001) found an in-
creased risk of lung cancer in two of the five plant studied;
however, the increase was not related to the dose of carbon
black. Thus, the authors did not consider the increased risk in
lung cancer to be due to carbon black exposure. A German
study of carbon black workers at one plant (Morfeld, 2006;
Buechte, 2006) found a similar increase in lung cancer risk
but, like the Sorohan, 2001 (UK study) found no association
with carbon black exposure. A large US study of 18 plants
showed a reduction in lung cancer risk in carbon black pro-
duction workers (DEll, 2006). Based upon these studies, the
February 2006 Working Group at the International Agency for
Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that the human evi-
dence for carcinogenicity was inadequate (IARC, 2010).
Since the IARC evaluation of carbon black, Sorahan and Har-
rington (2007) have re-analyzed the UK study data using an
alternative exposure hypothesis and found a positive associa-
tion with carbon black exposure in two of the five plants. The
same exposure hypothesis was applied by Morfeld and
McCunney (2009) to the German cohort; in contrast, they
found no association between carbon black exposure and
lung cancer risk and, thus, no support for the alternative expo-
sure hypothesis used by Sorahan and Harrington.
Overall, as a result of these detailed investigations, no causa-
tive link between carbon black exposure and cancer risk in
humans has been demonstrated.
IARC CANCER CLASSIFICATION: In 2006 IARC re-affirmed
its 1995 finding that there is "inadequate evidence" from hu-
man health studies to assess whether carbon black causes
cancer in humans. IARC concluded that there is "sufficient
evidence" in experimental animal studies for the carcinogen-
icity of carbon black. IARC's overall evaluation is that carbon
black is "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2B)". This
conclusion was based on IARC's guidelines, which generally
require such a classification if one species exhibits carcino-
genicity in two or more animal studies (IARC, 2010).