Pesticide residues in food — 2007: Toxicological ... - ipcs inchem

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Table 3. Dermal irritation and sensitization potential of atrazine
Species Strain Sex End-point (method) Purity (%) Result Reference
Rabbit Himalayan Males &
females
Rabbit Himalayan Males &
females
Guinea-pig
Guinea-pig
Pirbright White
(Tif:DHP)
Pirbright White
(Tif:DHP)
Males &
females
Males &
females
Human — NR Repeated-insult
patch test
NR, not reported.
Skin irritation NR Not irritating Ullmann
(1976b)
Eye irritation NR Not irritating Ullmann
(1976a)
Skin sensitization 98.2 Sensitizing Maurer (1983)
(optimization test)
Skin sensitization 98 Sensitizing Schoch (1985)
(Magnussen &
Kligman test)
Atrazine 80 W
formulation
Not
sensitizing
Shelanski &
Gittes (1965)
highest dose and the control group to evaluate an additional 4-week recovery period. The study was
conducted in compliance with GLP and US EPA and OECD test guidelines.
There were no major treatment-related clinical signs and no deaths. A statistically significant
decrease in body-weight gain, compared with controls, was found in males (−15%) and in females
(−9%) of the group at 500 ppm. A slight, non-statistically significant decrease (−8%) in body-weight
gain was also reported in males at 50 ppm. Food consumption was decreased in males (−10%) and
females (−5%) of the group at 500 ppm and for males at 50 ppm (−5%). No treatment-related changes
were found for any haematological or clinical chemistry parameters at any dose. The mean absolute
liver and kidney weights were lower in the males at 500 ppm and liver weight relative to body weight
was higher in females at 500 ppm than in the controls. Histologically, deposition of haemosiderin
pigment in the spleen was found at an increased incidence and severity at 500 ppm. In females, this
finding was still present at a higher incidence after the recovery period.
The NOAEL was 50 ppm, equal to 3.3 mg/kg bw per day, on the basis of decreased body
weight and increased splenic haemosiderosis at 500 ppm (Bachmann, 1994).
Dogs
In a study of oral toxicity in beagle dogs, groups of four males and four females (lowest and
intermediate dose) or six males and six females (control and highest dose) were fed diets containing
atrazine (purity, 97%) at a concentration of 0, 15, 150 or 1000 ppm, equal to 0, 0.5, 5 and 33.7 mg/kg
bw per day, for 52 weeks. Fixed portions of 400 g of diet were offered during a 3-h period each day.
Two males and two females in the control group and in the group at highest dose were designated to
be placed in a recovery group. Investigations included clinical pathology, ophthalmoscopic, auditory
and electrocardiographic examinations at 3-monthly intervals throughout the study. The study was
conducted in compliance with GLP and US EPA and OECD test guidelines.
Two dogs at the highest dose (one male on day 250, one female on day 113) and one male at
the intermediate dose (on day 75) were killed in a moribund condition during the course of the study.
The two dogs found in a moribund condition at the highest dose may have been affected by treatmentrelated
cardiac dysfunction since compound-related myocardial lesions were observed in these animals.
Treatment-related symptoms were restricted to dogs at the highest dose. Clinical symptoms at
1000 ppm included cachexia, ascites and laboured and shallow breathing. The ascites was considered
related to treatment-induced myocardial degeneration, as was the laboured breathing. Marked reduction
in body-weight gain (males, 61%; and females, 55% of control values) was recorded in dogs at
ATRAZINE 37–138 JMPR 2007