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The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has evaluated the carcinogenicity of automotive gasoline and some oxygenated gasoline additives. The outcome of the assessment has been published in a summary article in The Lancet Oncology.
Automotive gasoline is a commercial product and a complex mixture primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), tert-butyl alcohol (TBA), diisopropyl ether (DIPE), and tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME) are volatile compounds used as oxygenated additives in gasoline to increase combustion efficiency, and more commonly since the elimination of lead.
The Working Group evaluated automotive gasoline as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1) on the basis of sufficient evidence for cancer in humans and the combination of sufficient evidence for cancer in experimental animals and strong mechanistic evidence in exposed humans. Automotive gasoline causes cancer of the urinary bladder and acute myeloid leukaemia in adults. The evidence was limited for a causal association between automotive gasoline and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (including chronic lymphocytic leukaemia), multiple myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes, and cancers of the stomach and kidney in adults.
MTBE and ETBE were both classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B) on the basis of sufficient evidence for cancer in experimental animals. TBA, DIPE, and TAME were each evaluated as not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans (Group 3). For all the oxygenated gasoline additives, the evidence regarding cancer in humans was inadequate.
The full scientific assessment will be published as Volume 138 of the IARC Monographs.
Turner MC, Godderis L, Guénel P, Hopf N, Quintanilla-Vega B, Soares-Lima SC, et al.
Carcinogenicity of automotive gasoline and some oxygenated gasoline additives
Lancet Oncol. Published online 21 March 2025;
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(25)00165-2
