Major Category
Other Classes
Synonyms
Blue oil; Crude shale oils; Green oil; Oil, shale; Raw shale oil; Shale oil; Unfinished lubricating oil; UN1288; [ChemIDplus] Kerogen; [Hawley] Oil shale: Marlstone; [Rom, p. 532]
Category
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Description
Oil shale: ". . . a layered, gray-brown sedimentary rock"; [Rom, p. 532]
Sources/Uses
Lubricating oils derived from shale; [IARC] Has been extracted from deposits of sedimentary shale in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming by heating to 425-535 degrees C with a yield of less than 1 barrel per ton of shale processed; [Hawley]
Comments
Studies of the Scottish shale-oil industry and cotton-textile workers showed increased incidence of skin cancer (mule-spinners' cancer). [IARC] There were 4 cases of complicated pneumoconiosis in a study of 1,664 Scottish oil shale miners. This industry existed in Scotland from 1850 through 1962. Silica was found in the lung tissue of 3 miners. Other miners with pneumoconiosis had reduced pulmonary function values. 325 U.S. shale oil workers, employed 1948-1969, had no increased skin cancer or respiratory disease compared to controls (Utah coal miners). [Rom, p. 532-3; Rosenstock, p. 413]
IARC Carcinogen
Established
Diseases
Occupational diseases associated with exposure to this agent:
Processes
Industrial Processes with risk of exposure: