Carcinogenicity studies on halogenated hydrocarbons.

A series of halogenated compounds was tested by oral intubation in 200 Osborne-Mendel rats and 200 B6C3F1 mice of both sexes. Carbon tetrachloride, used as a positive control, induced liver and adrenal tumors in mice and neoplastic nodules in the livers of rats. 1,2-Dibromoethane and 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane caused stomach tumors with many metastases in both rats and mice. Chloroform, known to cause hepatocellular carcinomas in mice, led in addition to kidney tumors in male rats. 1,2-Dichloroethane was much weaker than the analog, 1,2-dibromoethane, and induced only a few stomach tumors in rats. It increased liver and lung tumors in mice. Most of the compounds, namely, trichloroethylene, 1,1-dichloroethane, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, hexachloroethane, and tetrachloroethylene, increased hepatocellular carcinomas in mice but had little or no action in rats. Iodoform tended to increase thyroid tumors in male rats and hepatocellular carcinomas in male mice. The action of 3-chloropropene was questionable. No tumors could be attributed to 1,1,1-trichloroethane (methyl-chloroform).