Teratologic evaluation of inhaled epichlorohydrin and allyl chloride in rats and rabbits.

Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats and New Zealand white rabbits were exposed to vapors of epichlorohydrin (ECH) at concentrations of 0, 2.5 or 25 ppm or to allyl chloride (AC) at concentrations of 0, 30, or 300 ppm. Exposures were for 7 hr/day on days 6 through 15 (rats) or 6 through 18 (rabbits) of gestation. Maternal effects including decreased body weight and food consumption were observed among rats inhaling 25 ppm of ECH. No evidence of an adverse effect to the embryo or fetus was observed among rats or rabbits following exposure to ECH. In the AC study maternal toxicity occurred in both rats and rabbits treated at 300 ppm. These consisted of depressed weight gain during gestation and increases in liver weight (both species) and kidney weights (rats only). Fetuses from rats exposed to 300 ppm of AC had a slight delay in skeletal development but there were no other signs of embryotoxicity. Thus, ECH and AC were not teratogenic or embryolethal in rats or rabbits following inhalation exposure to concentrations which induced effects in the maternal animals.