U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Divider Arrow National Institutes of Health Divider Arrow NCATS

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Status:
Other

Class (Stereo):
CHEMICAL (ACHIRAL)

Status:
Possibly Marketed Outside US
Source:
Canada:CARBON DISULFIDE
Source URL:

Class (Stereo):
CHEMICAL (ACHIRAL)

Carbon disulfide (CS2) in its pure form is a colourless, volatile and in-flammable liquid with a sweet aromatic odour. The technical product is a yellowish liquid with a disagreeable odour. It has been an important industrial chemical since the 1800s because of its many useful properties, including its ability to solubilise fats, rubbers, phosphorus, sulfur, and other elements. Its fat-solvent properties also make it indispensable in preparing fats, lacquers, and camphor; in refining petroleum jelly and paraffin; and in extracting oil from bones, palmstones, olives, and rags. It was also used in processing India rubber sap from tropical trees. In all these extraction processes, it has now been replaced by other solvents. Carbon disulfide's most important industrial use has been in the manufacture of regenerated cellulose rayon (by the viscose process) and cellophane. Another principal industrial use for carbon disulfide has been as a feedstock for carbon tetrachloride production. It has also been used to protect fresh fruit from insects and fungus during shipping, in adhesives for food packaging, and in the solvent extraction of growth inhibitors. Carbon disulfide has been highly suitable for other industrial applications including the vulcanisation and manufacture of rubber and rubber accessories; the production of resins, xanthates, thiocyanates, plywood adhesives, and flotation agents; solvent and spinning-solution applications, primarily in the manufacture of rayon and polymerisation inhibition of vinyl chloride; conversion and processing of hydrocarbons; petroleum-well cleaning; brightening of precious metals in electroplating; rust removal from metals; and removal and recovery of metals and other elements from waste water and other media. In agriculture, carbon disulfide has been widely used as a fumigant to control insects in stored grain, and to remove botfly larva infestations from the stomachs of horses and ectoparasites from swine. Use of carbon disulfide as a grain fumigant in the USA was voluntarily cancelled after 1985. The primary source of carbon disulfide in the environment is emission from viscose plants, around which environmental pollution is especially great. Carbon disulfide is irritating to the eyes, mucous membranes, and skin. Acute neurological effects may result from all routes of exposure and may include headache, confusion, psychosis, and coma. Acute exposure to extremely high levels of carbon disulfide may result in death. The neurotoxic effects caused by carbon disulfide may be due, in part, to its metabolic conversion to dithiocarbamates. Individuals especially susceptible to the toxic effects of carbon disulfide include those with existing disorders of the nervous system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system, or eyes.