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Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-90/15
Title and Subtitle: Inhalation Toxicology: X. Times to Incapacitation for Rats Exposed Continuously to Carbon Monoxide, Acrolein, and to Carbon Monoxide-Acrolein Mixtures
Report Date: December 1990
Authors: Crane, C.R., Sanders, D.C. and Endecott, B.R.
Abstract: Laboratory rats were exposed to experimental atmospheres of (a) carbon monoxide (CO) in air, (b) acrolein in air, and (c) to mixtures of CO and acrolein in air. The toxic potency of each of the three types of environments was evaluated toxicokinetically by measurement of time-to-incapacitation (ti) as a function of toxic gas concentrations. Regression equations were derived that relate the observed ti’s to the concentrations of individual gases. Comparison of the combined-gas-exposure data with results obtained from the individual gas exposures indicated that there was no evidence of synergistic action, i.e., that the effect of the combination was never greater than that predicted by the sum of the two individual gas effects. Evidence did exist for an inhibitory or antagonistic effect of undefined mechanism when acrolein was present in the mixture at concentrations of lesser toxic potency than that of CO. An empirical equation was derived that allows the calculation of a predicted ti for combinations of CO and acrolein concentrations within the ranges utilized in the experimental exposures.
Key Words: Inhalation toxicology; carbon monoxide; acrolein; irritant gas; CO-acrolein toxicity; time-to-incapacitation; animal exposure systems.
No. of Pages: 26