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Toxicant and Disease Database

 

The CHE Toxicant and Disease Database is a searchable database that summarizes links between chemical contaminants and approximately 180 human diseases or conditions. Diseases and or toxicants can be viewed by utilizing the search options below. In 2025, we have also added links to information available in the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD). See a full description of the database and our methodology. 

See also our compilation of other Databases and Resources.

For questions or comments about the database, please contact us through our Contact form.

 

phenoxyacetic herbicides

Diseases linked to this toxicant    Grouped by strength of evidence

Strong Evidence

Chloracne

Good Evidence

Adult-onset leukemias

Fetotoxicity (miscarriage / spontaneous abortion, stillbirth)

Hodgkin's disease (lymphoma)

Lymphoma (non-Hodgkin's)

Multiple myeloma

Peripheral neuropathy

Porphyria (toxic)

Soft tissue sarcomas

Stomach cancer

Limited Evidence

Autoimmune antibodies (positive ANA, anti-DNA, RF, etc.)

Brain cancer - childhood

Breast cancer

Colorectal cancer

Fetotoxicity (miscarriage / spontaneous abortion, stillbirth)

Hepatocellular cancer (liver cancer)

Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Immune suppression

Low birth weight / small for gestational age / intra-uterine growth retardation

Lung cancer

Preterm delivery

Prostate cancer

Thyroid cancer

ADDITIONAL DATA: The toxicant–disease relationships  shown above were last updated in 2011. The relationships shown here are still valid, but additional research has been conducted since that time. Additional research on this toxicant can be found at this link:

COMPARATIVE TOXICOGENOMICS DATABASE: CURATED RESULTS
phenoxyacetic herbicides

This link will direct your search to an external database, the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD). This database is different from, and complementary to, our database.

More information about sources and methods

  • CHE’s Toxicant and Disease Database evaluates existing evidence and categorizes that evidence based on its strength. It is constructed using expert judgment and epidemiological causal inference.
  • The CTD, in contrast, is a continually updated resource that presents information on a broad range of literature on chemical-disease relationships. It also provides data on genes, biological processes, and phenotypes related to chemicals and diseases. It does not categorize information based on strength of evidence,  include an expert judgment process, or draw causal conclusions about toxicant-disease relationships.
  • The link we have provided on this page goes directly to CTD's curated results, which are a subset of the information available through CTD. Curated results in CTD are those for which studies are available on the toxicant-disease relationship.

References for our 2011 disease list

Arbuckle T, Lin Z, Mery LS. An exploratory analysis of the effect of pesticide exposure on the risk of spontaneous abortion in an Ontario farm population. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2001 Aug;109(8):851-7.

Carpenter DO, Arcaro K, Spink DC. Understanding the human health effects of chemical mixtures. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2002;110(suppl 1):25-42.

Hardell L, Eriksson M, Nordstrom M. Exposure to pesticides as risk factor for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and hairy cell leukemia: pooled analysis of two Swedish case-control studies. Leukemia & Lymphoma. 2002 May;43(5):1043-9.

Hardell L, Lindström G, van Bavel B, Fredrikson M, Liljegren G. Some aspects of the etiology of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Environmental Health Perspectives. 1998 Apr;106(Suppl 2):679-681.

Klaassen CD, Ed. Casarett and Doull's Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons, 6th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill 2001.

LaDou J, Ed. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 3rd Edition. New York: Lange Medical/McGraw-Hill Company, 2004.

Rom WM. Environmental and Occupational Medicine, 3rd Edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Publishers, 1998.