Health hazard · Germ cell mutagenicity

H340 — May cause genetic defects

Health hazard statements describe what the substance does to a person exposed to it. 427 substances with a harmonised EU classification carry this code.

EU CLP: currentUS OSHA HazCom: currentUS HazCom 2012: currentUN GHS: current

01 · Wording

What H340 says

Official

May cause genetic defects <state route of exposure if it is conclusively proven that no other routes of exposure cause the hazard>. The wording is incomplete on purpose. The route of exposure — stated only where it is conclusively proven that no other route of exposure causes the hazard.

Typical

May cause genetic defects. How it usually reads on a label and on a safety data sheet. We show it separately rather than presenting a filled-in blank as the regulation's own text.

Source

CLP Annex III · Health hazards

Classification

Germ cell mutagenicity GHS chapter 3.5

Category 1B, 1A · pictogram GHS08 (health hazard) · signal word Danger

Reading the official wording. <angle brackets> mark a blank the supplier fills in — not a truncated sentence.· UN GHS prints the same blanks in round brackets, CLP in angle ones.· P-codes use a different notation — an ellipsis and square brackets.

UN GHS history

Unchanged since 2009.

Rev.3 2009

Rev.4 2011

Rev.5 2013

Rev.6 2015

Rev.7 2017

Rev.8 2019

Rev.9 2021

Rev.10 2023

Rev.11 2025

wording never changed

Present in every UN GHS edition from Rev.3 (2009) to Rev.11 (2025), with the same wording throughout.

Nine editions of the UN model text, 86 hazard statements, 19 of which ever moved. Read the full story in what changed in UN GHS Rev.11.

02 · Legal status

Where H340 is current

GHS is a United Nations model text, revised every two years, and each jurisdiction adopts a revision on its own timetable. A code can be legally current in one system and deleted in another — that is normal, not an error.

Jurisdiction	Basis	Status of H340
EU CLP	Regulation (EC) 1272/2008 CLP Annex IV, Part 2 (consolidated)	Current
US OSHA HazCom	29 CFR 1910.1200 Appendix C UN GHS Rev.7 (final rule of 20 May 2024)	Current
US HazCom 2012	legacy · GHS Rev.3 UN GHS Rev.3, Annex 3	Current
UN GHS	Rev.11 (2025) UN GHS Rev.11, Annex 3	Current

Currently in force under: EU CLP, US OSHA HazCom, US HazCom 2012, UN GHS. Sources: EU CLP · US OSHA HazCom · US HazCom 2012 · UN GHS

03 · Substances

Substances carrying H340

Every entry whose harmonised CLP Annex VI classification includes this hazard statement. Substances with a reference page here open on this site; the rest open on ghssymbols.com.

427 of 427 shown

Nothing matches that filter.

All hazard statements

The full list of H-codes with the jurisdiction switch lives on the hazard statements hub. For what to do about the hazard, see precautionary statements (P-codes).

Wording quoted from the regulation named above. Substance counts come from harmonised classifications in CLP Annex VI — the statements on a real product also depend on the supplier's own classification. Always check the supplier safety data sheet.