Abstract

The present paper summarizes the results of animal studies on the reproductive and developmental toxicity of the degradation products of refrigerants, including trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), carbon dioxide (CO(2)), carbon monoxide (CO), carbonyl fluoride (CF), hydrogen fluoride (HF) and formic acid (FA). Excessive CO(2) in the atmosphere is testicular and reproductive toxic, embryolethal, developmentally neurotoxic and teratogenic in experimental animals. As for CO, maternal exposure causes prenatal and postnatal lethality and growth retardation, skeletal variations, cardiomegaly, blood biochemical, immunological and postnatal behavioral changes, and neurological impairment in offspring of several species. Very early studies of CO in rats and guinea pigs reported fetal malformations in exposed dams. The results of toxicological studies on sodium fluoride (NaF) were used to obtain insight into the toxicity of CF and HF, because CF is rapidly hydrolyzed in contact with water yielding CO(2) and HF, and NaF is similar in kinetics and dynamics to HF. Increased fetal skeletal variation, but not malformation, was noted after the maternal administration of NaF. Rat multiple-generation studies revealed that NaF caused retarded ossification and degenerative changes in the lung and kidney in offspring. There is a lack of information about the toxicity of TFA and FA.

• Related Studies :

  • Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards.

    Excerpts: Summary Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to establish exposure standards for contaminants in public drinking-water systems that might cause any adverse effects on human health. These standards include the maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG), the maximum contaminant level (MCL), and the secondary

  • Fluoride-induced chronic renal failure

    Renal fluoride toxicity in human beings is difficult to assess in the literature. Although experimental studies and research on methoxyflurane toxicity have shown frank renal damage, observations of renal insufficiency related to chronic fluoride exposure are scarce. We report a case of fluoride intoxication related to potomania of Vichy water,

  • Subchronic neurotoxicity in rats of the structural fumigant, sulfuryl fluoride

    Inhalation exposure of male and female Fischer 344 rats to sulfuryl fluoride [Vikane (Dow Chemical Company) gas fumigant] at 300 ppm for 6 hr/day, 5 days week, for 13 weeks caused diminished weight gain, dental fluorosis, a slight decrease in grooming, decreased flicker fusion threshold, slowing of flash, auditory and

  • Subacute fluorosis

    A young woman presented with a novel multisystem disease: painful periostitis, osteosclerosis, hypertension, and renal dysfunction. The similarity of some of this clinical picture to fluoride intoxication led to the discovery of massively elevated fluoride levels in serum, urine, and bone. Although initially an enigma, the source of fluoride was

  • Effects of fluorine on the human fetus.

    In an endemic fluorosis area, 16 fetuses that were delivered during their sixth to eighth month of gestation by means of artificial abortion were collected and studied. The results [compared to 10 control fetuses from a non-endemic area] show that fluorine levels in tissues are obviously high, especially in brain, calvarium, and femur. The activity of alkaline

• Related FAN Content :

  • Fluoride & Kidney Stones

    It has long been suspected that fluoride may contribute to the formation of kidney stones. This suspicion has recently gained support from a study of an American man with skeletal fluorosis. According to the authors: "A new, important, medical problem (that seemed temporally related to cessation of fluoride exposure and subsequent negative calcium

  • Respiratory Risks from Occupational Fluoride Exposure

    Starting in the 1930s, scientists have observed that workers exposed to airborne fluorides suffer from an elevated rate of respiratory disorders. For over 50 years, however, US government and industry scientists made repeated assurances that the allowable level of fluoride dusts and gases in industrial workplaces would not cause any

  • Fluoride as a Cause of Kidney Disease in Animals

    Because the kidney is exposed to higher concentrations of fluoride than all other soft tissues (with the exception of the pineal gland), there is concern that excess fluoride exposure may contribute to kidney disease - thus initiating a "vicious cycle" where the damaged kidneys increase the accumulation of fluoride, causing in

  • "Pre-Skeletal" Fluorosis

    As demonstrated by the studies below, skeletal fluorosis may produce adverse symptoms, including arthritic pains, clinical osteoarthritis, gastrointestinal disturbances, and bone fragility, before the classic bone change of fluorosis (i.e., osteosclerosis in the spine and pelvis) is detectable by x-ray. Relying on x-rays, therefore, to diagnosis skeletal fluorosis will invariably fail to protect those individuals who are suffering from the pre-skeletal phase of the disease. Moreover, some individuals with clinical skeletal fluorosis will not develop an increase in bone density, let alone osteosclerosis, of the spine. Thus, relying on unusual increases in spinal bone density will under-detect the rate of skeletal fluoride poisoning in a population.

  • Kidney: A potential target for fluoride toxicity

    The kidneys are the organ responsible for clearing fluoride from the body. In the process of doing so, the kidneys are exposed to concentrations of fluoride that exceed, by a factor of 50, the concentration of fluoride in human blood. As such, the kidney have long been considered a potential