Sources/Uses
Nitrosamines are produced in foundry, tanning, and rubber manufacturing processes. Nitrosamines are carcinogens in experimental animals. [Hawley] Sources of exposure include cigarette smoking, cured or smoked meat and fish, metalworking fluids, rubber vulcanization, leather tanning, and endogenous nitrosation of drugs in the stomach. [Rom, p. 1229-31] "Nitrosamines are chemical compounds of the chemical structure R1N(-R2)-N=O, most of which are carcinogenic." [Wikipedia]
Comments
"The acute toxicity of the dialkylnitrosamines decreases with increasing chain length." [ACGIH] "Appreciation of the carcinogenicity of the nitrosamines has led to their characterization in many occupational and environmental circumstances." N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) has caused fatal hepatic necrosis after acute exposure and liver cirrhosis after chronic exposure. [LaDou, p. 507-8]