Silicone oil is often used as an auxiliary in the dyeing industry, so is it harmful?


When used as a dyeing auxiliary, it makes the fabric feel very smooth, but it also causes airtightness. When sweating, silicone oil slowly enters the human body with the opening of the pores!
At the end of the 1990s, European and American scientists also discovered that silicone oil can cause a decline in human immune function or carcinogenic symptoms.
There have been scientific research experiments in laboratory animal studies that have found that silicone oil can have endocrine disrupting properties, affect connective tissue, cause adverse immune reactions, and damage liver and lungs.
(1) The way that volatile methyl siloxane enters the human body. Cyclic VMS can be absorbed by humans through the respiratory system. In order to determine the pharmacokinetic principle of VMS, some researchers have tested the respiratory system inhalation and exhalation of the cyclic VMS. Research on the content of D4. The study was conducted on 12 healthy volunteers between 25 and 49 years old. Volunteers inhale 10 ppm of D4 (122μg/liter) or air, and continuously measure the concentration of D4 in inhalation and exhalation. The average intake of D4 in volunteers whose breath contains D4 is 137±25 mg. Only 6%-17% of the human body's D4 is absorbed. Circular VMS can be absorbed by the human body through the digestive system. Foreign researchers fed D4 to mice. As a result, the digestive system of mice absorbed 52% of D4. Cyclic VMS can be absorbed by the human body through the skin. D4 and D5 are important additives in cosmetics and are widely used in personal care products. Studies have shown that in the process of human use of cosmetics, 90% of D4 and D5 in personal care products before use are volatilized into the air. The absorption rate of D4 by human skin is only 0.5%, while the absorption of D5 is only 0.05. %. In the test results conducted on mice, it was shown that less than 1.0% of D4 and 0.2% of D5 were absorbed by mice.


(2) Acute toxicity of volatile methylsiloxane In soil, VMS exhibits unique ecological toxicity [46]. Foreign literature shows that the median lethal concentration (LC50) of D4 in rats after respiratory exposure is 36 mg/l. The mice all died within 5-8 days after being injected with 35g/kg of circular VMS (D3, D4, D5, D6), and the mice's median lethal dose (LD50) was 28g/kg.


(3) Repeated dose of volatile methyl siloxane and reproductive and developmental toxicity According to the results of foreign studies, the liver and respiratory system are the target organs of siloxane in animals. Repetitive respiratory exposure to VMS may cause liver weight gain and hepatic hypertrophy. The weight gain of the liver exceeds 10% (when the D4 respiration exposure dose is 10ppm), it exceeds the normal range. There is no liver damage at this time; when the exposure dose reaches 500ppm, liver hypertrophy begins to appear. In addition, toxicological studies have shown that repetitive respiratory exposure at high concentrations of D4 also causes weight gain in the adrenal glands and weight loss in the thymus and ovaries. Female SD rats exposed to high concentration of 500ppm respiratory exposure, showed obvious problems, including decreased corpus luteum, decreased uterine implantation point, decreased litter size, decreased survival rate of offspring, etc., and there was a significant dose-effect relationship. None of the above items appeared after mating with normal non-exposed female mice. Under D4's 700 ppm respiratory exposure, the female mouse's menstrual cycle is affected, affecting normal ovulation and fertilization. The study also showed that male rats exposed to the environment of D4 did not show a decrease in sperm count and changes in reproductive organs and reproductive capacity. Therefore, the decrease in the survival rate of offspring is mainly related to the changes in females, and the influence of males may be excluded]. Toxicologists believe that the reproductive effects of D4 on SD rats can be further analogized to humans, and the NOAEL value is determined to be 300 ppm.


(4) The weak estrogenic effect of volatile methylsiloxane. Existing animal experiments show that D4 may have weak estrogenic toxicity, which can cause mouse uterine weight gain and uterine epithelial cell height increase. In the study of 344 mice, half of the male and female mice were exposed to different concentrations of D4 to breathe. As a result, the liver weight of female mice increased (488 to 898 ppm) and the weight of ovary decreased significantly compared with male mice. (898 ppm) and the ovarian activity of female mice decreased.


(5) Carcinogenicity of Volatile Methylsiloxane So far, no human experimental studies have shown that D4 is carcinogenic. However, animal experiments showed that F344 rats caused endometrial adenomas and adenocarcinomas although no tumors were found in the liver and respiratory tract after 2 years of exposure. The incidence of endometrial adenomas in female mice at an exposure dose of 700 ppm was 11%, 80% were accompanied by endometrial epithelial cell proliferation, and only 19% in the control group. In addition, endometrial adenocarcinoma and endometrial adenoma were found in female mice at exposure doses of 150 ppm and lower exposure doses of 30 ppm for 12 months after stopping exposure for 12 months [24]. Mechanism studies have shown that endometrial cancer is due to D4 acting as a dopamine agonist. Because dopamine can inhibit the secretion of prolactin, the reproductive senescence of female mice is delayed, which leads to long-term stimulation of the endometrium to produce tumors. It is currently unclear whether D4 can cause tumors in other organisms through the food chain.