Diethylamine

CAS number: 109–89–7

NIOSH REL: 10 ppm (30 mg/m³) TWA, 25 ppm (75 mg/m³) STEL

Current OSHA PEL: 25 ppm (75 mg/m³) TWA

1989 OSHA PEL: 10 ppm (30 mg/m³) TWA, 25 ppm (75 mg/m³) STEL

1993-1994 ACGIH TLV: 5 ppm (15 mg/m³) TWA, 15 ppm (45 mg/m³) STEL [skin]

Description of Substance: Colorless liquid with a fishy, ammonia-like odor.

LEL:. . 1.8% (10% LEL, 1,800 ppm)

Original (SCP) IDLH: 2,000 ppm

Basis for original (SCP) IDLH: Patty [1963] made the statement that a 4-hour exposure to 4,000 ppm killed 3 of 6 rats. However, because of the severe eye and lung irritation that occurs as a result of exposure to high concentrations of diethylamine, an IDLH of 2,000 ppm is chosen.

Short-term exposure guidelines: None developed

ACUTE TOXICITY DATA

Lethal concentration data:

Species	Reference	LC50 (ppm)	LCLo (ppm)	Time	Adjusted 0.5-hr LC (CF)	Derived value
Rat	Hine et al. 1960	4,000	-----	4 hr	8,000 ppm (2.0)	800 ppm

Lethal dose data:

Species	Reference	Route	LD50 (mg/kg)	LDLo (mg/kg)	Adjusted LD	Derived value
Rat Mouse	Hine et al. 1960 Patel et al. 1985	oral oral	540 500	----- -----	1,243 ppm 1,151 ppm	124 ppm 115 ppm

Other animal data: RD₅₀ (mouse), 184 ppm [Nielsen and Yamagiwa 1989].

Human data: It has been stated that the simple alkyl amines are generally more toxic than ammonia [ACGIH 1991]. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists TLV for diethylamine (10 ppm TWA, 25 ppm STEL) was based on an analogy to ammonia (25 ppm TWA, 35 ppm STEL) [ACGIH 1991].

Revised IDLH: 200 ppm Basis for revised IDLH: The revised IDLH for diethylamine is 200 ppm based on acute inhalation toxicity data in animals [Nielsen and Yamagiwa 1989] and an analogy to ammonia [ACGIH 1991].

REFERENCES:

1. ACGIH [1991]. Diethylamine. In: Documentation of the threshold limit values and biological exposure indices. 6th ed. Cincinnati, OH: American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, pp. 460-461.

2. Hine CH, Kodama JK, Guzman RJ, Loquvam GS [1960]. The toxicity of allylamines. Arch Environ Health 1:343-352.

3. Nielsen GD, Yamagiwa M [1989]. Structure-activity relationships of airway irritating aliphatic amines, receptor activation mechanisms and predicted industrial exposure limits. Chem Biol Interact 71(2/3):228-244.

4. Patel VK, Venkatakrishna-Bhatt H, Patel NB, Jindal MN [1985]. Pharmacology of new glutarimide compounds. Biomed Biochim Acta 44(5):795-803.

5. Patty FA, ed. [1963]. Industrial hygiene and toxicology. 2nd rev. ed. Vol. II. Toxicology. New York, NY: Interscience Publishers, Inc., p. 2044.