RDX stands for Royal Demolition Explosive, also known as cyclonite, hexogen, and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine.

White crystalline solid

RDX is an explosive on its own, and can be combined with other ingredients to make plastic explosives (C-4 contains 91% RDX). Its odor and taste are unknown. When heated, acrid fumes may be released.

RDX is used as an explosive. It is a synthetic product that does not occur naturally in the environment.

RDX particles can enter air when it is disposed of by burning. RDX can enter water from disposal of waste water from ammunition plants. RDX can enter water or soil from spills or leaks from improper disposal at plants or hazardous waste sites and at current and former military installations.

Removal from soil, water, and air

RDX is slow dissolving in water. It does not bind significantly to soils and can leach to groundwater from soil. In water and air, RDX can break down in hours, but breaks down more slowly in soil. It does not build up in fish or people.

You may be exposed to RDX by the inhalation, oral, or dermal routes, or by any combination of these routes. Typically, only people who work with RDX can potentially breathe RDX dust or get it on their skin. You can be exposed if you breathe RDX fumes from explosions or bombing ranges of burning RDX.

You may be exposed to RDX by drinking contaminated water or by touching contaminated soil if you live near facilities that produce or use RDX. RDX has been found in water and soil near some ammunition plants, current or former military installations and storage areas.

You may be exposed to RDX by ingesting agricultural crops grown in contaminated soils irrigated with contaminated water.

Enter your body

• Inhalation

RDX can enter your body if you breathe in fumes of burning RDX or from the detonation of munitions containing RDX or if you breath in the dust from powdered RDX.

• Oral

It can also enter the body if you drink water contaminated with RDX or accidentally or intentionally ingest explosives containing RDX.

• Dermal contact

Much less RDX can enter the body through the skin if you come in contact with dusts of RDX or with liquids containing RDX.

Based on observations made in humans and results from studies in animals, most of the RDX appears to be broken down rapidly in the body. These products, as well as unchanged RDX, are eliminated in the urine and exhaled air in a few days. RDX is not expected to accumulate in the body.

Humans

If you breathe in dusts of RDX or intentionally or accidentally swallow large amounts of RDX, you may develop seizures. The seizures are temporary and will stop after the RDX is eliminated from your body.

Some people exposed to large amounts of RDX also have alterations in blood pressure and in some components of the blood, but these effects may be secondary to the seizures.

We do not know the effects of long-term, low-level exposure to RDX.

Laboratory animals

Animals that had large amounts of RDX placed in the stomach with a tube or that ate food mixed with RDX for longer periods of time suffered seizures.

Rats and mice that ate RDX for 3 months or longer had decreased body weights and slight liver and kidney damage.

There are no studies reported of cancer in people exposed to RDX.

The EPA has determined that RDX is a possible human carcinogen based on the presence of liver tumors in mice that were exposed to RDX in the food for 1-2 years.

There are no studies of children exposed to RDX, but a child who accidentally ingested RDX had seizures, which is the same effect that occurs in adults exposed to high amounts of RDX.

We do not know whether children are more susceptible to the effects of RDX than adults.

We do not know whether RDX causes birth defects in humans.

Exposure of animals to RDX during pregnancy has not caused birth defects in newborn animals. However, rats exposed to RDX during gestation gave birth to babies with smaller weight and length than rats not exposed to RDX.

In rats exposed to RDX during pregnancy, RDX was able to pass through the placenta and reached the fetus.

Young deer mice (21 days old) were more sensitive than older deer mice (50 days old) to the acute toxic effects of RDX.

There are no studies that looked for RDX in human breast milk. However, rats exposed to RDX during pregnancy had RDX in their milk, suggesting that the same can occur in humans. This means that women exposed to RDX who nurse their babies could transfer RDX to the babies in the milk.

RDX is not found in consumer products. Therefore, families are not expected to have contact with RDX through the use of consumer products.

Families whose tap or well water may be contaminated with RDX may choose to drink or cook with bottled water or to install activated carbon water filters.

RDX can be measured in blood and urine, but these are not routine tests that can be performed in a doctor's office.

We do not know whether the presence of RDX in the blood indicates that you were exposed briefly a few days before the blood was collected or that you are experiencing constant exposure.

The tests for RDX in blood and urine cannot be used to determine how much RDX entered your body.

The presence of RDX in your blood does not necessarily mean that you will suffer adverse health effects. The usual immediate health effects are seizures, muscle twitching, or vomiting from very high exposures. These would probably occur before you had the blood or urine test.

The EPA has determined that exposure to RDX in drinking water at concentrations of 0.1 mg/L for one day or 0.1 mg/L for 10 days is not expected to cause any adverse effects in a child.

The EPA has determined that lifetime exposure to 0.002 mg/L RDX is not expected to cause any adverse effects.

OSHA had previously set a legal limit of 1.5 mg/m³ for RDX in March 1989; however, the standard was vacated in 1992.

NIOSH has set a 10-hour time-weighted average recommended exposure limit of 1.5 mg/m³ .