Chapter 9: Solvents and hydrocarbons · Part 3: Petroleum hydrocarbons
White mineral oil and petroleum distillates
- Poison schedule (Australia)
- Contaminant risk
The worst fact: US poison centres recorded 284,085 hydrocarbon swallowings in under-20s in 2000–2021, 83.2% in children under 6. 34 died, 32 of them under 6, most of them linked to the liquid going into the lungs. These were all hydrocarbons: petrol was 24.6% of cases, motor oils 19.9% and lamp oil 11.3%. Thin oils slip into the lungs easily while swallowing or vomiting, causing chemical pneumonia.
Why brands use it: it shines and protects surfaces, lifts sticky residue, and repels water.
Take care if: you have young children. Coughing, gagging or choking after a swallow means it may have gone into the lungs: call the Poisons Information Centre on 13 11 26. Australia schedules kerosene, mineral turpentine, white petroleum spirit and light mineral and paraffin oils as Schedule 5 (Caution); food and pharmaceutical grade white oil is exempt, as are creams and pastes, products with 25% or less of designated solvents, and aerosols. US spot removers have contained 75% mineral spirits. The US requires child-resistant caps on non-emulsion household liquids with 10% or more thin (low-viscosity) hydrocarbons, including thin liquid furniture polishes (not aerosols).
Comes from: crude oil, refined by distillation and purification with acid or hydrogen.
Myth check: "Mineral oil causes cancer": it depends on the grade. The WHO cancer agency rates untreated and mildly treated oils "carcinogenic to humans", but highly refined oils "not classifiable". Medicinal white oils are highly refined.
Contaminants: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Poorly refined oils keep them; food-grade white oil must pass a PAH test. They're unlikely in a well-made product, but it's a factor you can't see on the label.
Fair to say: the cancer concern belongs to poorly refined oils and some solvent-grade distillates (Australia classes Stoddard solvent, a mineral spirits, as "May cause genetic defects; May cause cancer"), not food and medicine-grade white oil. The main danger is physical: a thin oil slipping into the lungs. That's why the US rules are based on how runny it is.
Correct as of November 2026. What the badges mean
Sources
- Australian Government. Poisons Standard October 2026 (SUSMP), F2026L01327: 2-butoxyethanol; diethylene glycol monobutyl ether; hydrocarbons, liquid; toluene; xylene; tetrachloroethylene; trichloroethylene; Appendix B.
- Safe Work Australia. Hazardous Chemical Information System (HCIS): classifications for each chemical, and for ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, epichlorohydrin, benzene, 1,3-butadiene-containing butane and 1,2-dichloroethane. Workplace exposure standards (amended November 2025) and workplace exposure limits (July 2025). Labelling of workplace hazardous chemicals code of practice (2015). Trichloroethylene health monitoring guide.
- US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Child-resistant packaging for hydrocarbon-containing products, 66 FR 53951 (2001); 16 CFR 1700.14; 16 CFR 1500.17.
- IARC. Monographs vol. 88 (2-butoxyethanol), vol. 106 (trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene); Supplement 7 (mineral oils).
- Palmer et al. Hydrocarbon ingestions among US youth, 2000–2021. Inj Epidemiol 2023;10:48.
The full source list is at the end of Chapter 9.