Acetonitrile

A) TOXICITY: Fatal poisoning has occurred in a 16-month-old child following the ingestion of as little as 1.2 g/kg of a nail glue remover containing 98% to 100% acetonitrile. Dermal exposure of 30 mL of a 98% to 100% acetonitrile nail product caused systemic toxicity in a 2-year-old 12-kg child. In a volunteer inhalational exposure study, mild symptoms occurred in subjects exposed to 40 to 160 parts per million (ppm) acetonitrile. Inhalational exposure of 15 workers to 30% to 40% acetonitrile pain thinner in an enclosed space for several hours per day for 2 days resulted in one death and a wide range of toxic effects. Any patient exposed to an acetonitrile vapor in an enclosed or poorly ventilated space without a ventilator should be presumed to be exposed. Five hundred ppm is considered immediately dangerous to life and health.