Hexachlorophene Toxi

Hexachlorophene Toxicity to French Babies

This is part of a Center For Disease Control report that briefly notes to French epidemiological study of the autopsies of the French babies who died after receiving hexachlorophene.



h. Hexachlorophene can be lethal from percutaneous absorption.  Children may be specifically susceptible. 
i. Hexachlorophene (6.3%) was added to “baby powder” in France due to a manufacturing error.  It caused encephalopathy and ulcerative skin lesions.  36 of 204 exposed children died within a few days of exposure (Martin-Bouyer et al., 1982). 
ii. pHisoHex® soap contains 3% hexachlorophene.  Repeated bathing of premature children in undiluted pHisoHex has been associated with a vacuolar encephalopathy and lower survival rates.  A study of 248 children autopsied over a 7.5 year period showed encephalopathy in 17 infants (Shuman et al., 1974).  PHisoHex has been restricted to prescription use or as a surgical scrub for health care personnel since 1972 (Freeman and Maibach, 1991).

At that time it was not possible to do brain imaging studies on the babies who lived.  Now of course it is possible.  It's certainly reasonable to expect that a pattern of abnormalities in the myelin may appear.  Based on hundreds of studies listed in Pub Med one might expect that two of the most likely structural areas of the brain may be the cerebellum and the brainstem.