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Toxicant & Disease Database

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.

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Asthma - irritant

Causes Grouped by strength of evidence

Strong Evidence acids air pollution ammonia chlorine cotton dust diesel exhaust ethylene amines hydrogen sulfide nitrogen dioxide particulate air pollution (soot) sulfur dioxide tobacco smoke (active smoking) tobacco smoke (secondhand)	Good Evidence 1,1-dichloroethane carbamates chloramine hydrazines oil fly ash organophosphates osmium tetraoxide ozone pesticides phosgene	Limited Evidence benzene caprolactam chloroform dibromochloropropane (DBCP) dibutyl phthalate (DBP) dicyclohexyl phthalate dimethyl sulfate fragrances phthalates tetrachloroisophthalonitrile toluene

Notes

Numerous agents have been associated with asthma - a few are included here. Regarding air pollutants, nitrogen and sulfer oxides may exacerbate asthma in individuals with the disease, but have not been found to cause asthma in healthy individuals. However diesel exhaust, a major source of PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide, has been causally associated with asthma. Ozone has been associated with both causing and exacerbating asthma. Risk of asthma is associated with both prenatal and postnatal exposure to secondhand smoke, and is clearly dose-related, with rates increasing with more smoking family members and in the homes of heavy smokers. Cigarette smoke resembles diesel exhaust and industrial emissions, containing a similar mix of tiny particles, thousands of toxic chemicals, and numerous respiratory irritants. Exposure to cigarette smoke and to outdoor air pollution may therefore cause similar asthmatic responses.

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 disease can be found at this link:

COMPARATIVE TOXICOGENOMICS DATABASE: CURATED RESULTS
Asthma

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.