Chapter 9: Solvents and hydrocarbons · Part 3: Petroleum hydrocarbons
Xylene
- Poison schedule (Australia)
The worst fact: mixed xylenes have been found at up to 95% in home maintenance and car products in a US database. At high levels it causes headaches, dizziness and slowed reactions, and in animals hearing loss and impaired learning.
Why brands use it: it's a strong, slower-evaporating solvent for paint, glue and grease.
Take care if: you use it indoors, or have children. Australia classes it as "May be fatal if swallowed and enters airways; Harmful in contact with skin; Causes skin irritation; Harmful if inhaled; May cause respiratory irritation; Flammable liquid and vapour". It's Schedule 6 above 50% (toluene and xylene combined) and otherwise Schedule 5 (Caution), with exceptions such as products with 25% or less of designated solvents and aerosols. Exposure is most likely in poorly ventilated rooms.
Comes from: crude oil, by catalytic reforming, and from steam-cracker by-products.
Myth check: "Xylene is one chemical": "mixed xylenes" typically contains 15 to 20% of a different chemical, ethylbenzene.
Contaminants: nil.
Fair to say: the WHO cancer agency says it isn't classifiable as a carcinogen, and Australia's regulator cited studies showing home air levels, even after painting (under 82 ppb), were far below where health effects start.
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.
- NICNAS. Priority Existing Chemical Reports No. 6: 2-butoxyethanol in cleaning products (1996); No. 8: trichloroethylene (2000); No. 15: tetrachloroethylene (2001). IMAP Tier II assessments: diethylene glycol monobutyl ether (2013); toluene (2017); xylenes (2019).
- ATSDR. ToxFAQs: 2-butoxyethanol; propylene glycol; toluene; xylenes.
- HSDB (US National Library of Medicine), via PubChem: manufacturing, use and impurity data.
The full source list is at the end of Chapter 9.