Prolonged exposure to a germ killer widely used in industry and in household and personal care products, stunts the growth of developing nerves in the brains of rats, according to new research.

The finding was described by Dr. Elias Aizenman on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology in Washington, DC.

There haven’t been many studies of the toxic effects of this compound, methyl-isothiazolinone or MIT, the researcher noted in a telephone interview with AMN Health.

“There are many documented instances of people being exposed to MIT in the workplace - most of what one sees is contact burns or dermatitis or allergic sensitization,” he said.

“I would be concerned that a pregnant woman working in such an environment could potentially be exposed to high enough concentrations of MIT to have some effects on the developing embryo, but we just don’t know yet,” he added.

In a previous study, Aizenman and his colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that exposing mature rat neurons to a high concentration of MIT causes a high proportion of the cells to die within 10 minutes.

In their latest experiments, the researchers saw that prolonged exposure (roughly 18 hours) to a much lower, sub-lethal concentration of MIT caused embryonic rat neurons to stop developing in the way they should.

Aizenman said he plans to conduct further studies of the toxic effects of MIT on nerves to better understand the “molecular mechanisms and the potential neurodevelopmental consequences.”