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Health hazard
Ethidium bromide is a mutagen, suspected carcinogen and at high concentrations is irritating to the eyes, skin, mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract[citation needed]. The health effects of ethidium bromide exposure have not been thoroughly investigated. It is suspected to be carcinogenic and teratogenic because of its mutagenicity, although there is no direct evidence of either effect. The toxic effects of ethidium bromide may be experienced if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. However, ethidium bromide is not easily absorbed through the skin because of positive charge and bulky structure.
The National Toxicological Program has published data [1] (this was current as of 08/08/2007) and an Executive Summary [2]. Both the data sheet and the executive summary note that ethidium bromide (under the name homodium bromide) has "some reported use as an antiparasitic & antiprotazoic drug in animals; has also been used as a drug or drug precursor." In the section Evidence for Possible Carcinogenic Activity of the Executive Summary it is stated that: "several early '70s studies reported that EB demonstrated antitumorigenic effects." In the Report on Carcinogens (11th Edition)[3], ethidium bromide is not listed in the body of the report but is listed in Table 1 with the testing status noted as "No additional testing".
Ethidium bromide is thought to act as a mutagen because it intercalates into double stranded DNA, thereby deforming the molecule. This is believed to block or trip biological processes occurring on DNA, like DNA replication and transcription.
from cuturl('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethidium_bromide')
