Banned dinitrophenols still trigger both legal and forensic issues

ABSTRACT

Numerous hazardous chemicals from various industrial sources enter the environment daily; some of them can be used both as drugs and as toxins. Many of these compounds, including dinitrophenols, such as 2,4-dinitrophenol (2,4-DNP), 4,6-dinitrocresol (DNOC), and 2-sec-butyl-4,6-dinitrophenol (dinoseb), are widely used pesticides that persist in some contaminated soils. They have been found in groundwater, causing health and environmental hazards, and are subjects of forensic toxicology. Dinitrophenols have multiple biological and noxious effects based on a mechanism of action characteristic to metabolic inhibitors. Although banned, they have pharmaceutical activity and can be purchased on the Internet as ingredients of weight-loss pills. Many death cases have been reported as accidents in agriculture or as overdoses in weight-loss diets. In this article, we discuss legal aspects of dinitrophenol usage, as well as their biological effect and possible mechanisms of toxicity.

KEYWORDS:

• Dinitrophenols
• legal/illegal use
• toxicity mechanism
• environmental forensics

Funding

Financial support was supplied by the Romanian Government (UEFISCDI-Partnership Metafore Project, PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013–4–1149; Contract 107/2014). Manuela Murariu is grateful to the POSDRU/159/1.5/S/133652 grant for financial support.