Nygienic and Toxicological Criteria of Harmfulness N Evaluating Hazards of Chemical Compounds
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..---'-"-.'-' - - IRPTC NYGIENIC AND TOXICOLOGICAL CRITERIA OF HARMFULNESS N EVALUATING HAZARDS OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS - - -, - - !---, --- k _-:-___-- - UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT USSR STATE COMMITTEE FOR PROGRAMME (UNEP) SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY REGISTER OF INTERNATIONAl. USSR COMMISSION FOR UNEP POTENTIAlLY TOXIC CHEMICALS (IRPTC) HYGIENIC AND TOXICOLOGICAL CRITERIA OF HARMFULNESS IN EVALUATING HAZARDS OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS by IV. Sanotsky and I.P. Ulanova / I Q) N '~ 4 CENTRE OF INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS, GKNT Moscow 1983 Translated by A. V. Cflabro;a and 0. L. Zhereb/sor.a Revision, translation and publication of Monograph ellygienic and Toxico- logical Criteria of Harmfulness in Evaluating of Chemical Cornpoundss has been carried out under the joint USSR—UNEP/JRPTC Project <<Control ci Hazards posed by Chemicals to Human l -lealth and the Environments. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the decisions or the stated policy of either the United Nations Environment Pro- gran]me or its International Register oi Potentially Toxic Chemicals. This book is intended for toxicologists, hygienists and all those responsible for evaluation and control of liariri lul effects cii chemicals to human health and Urn environment. It could also be useful in postgraduate training of specialists in preventive toxicology. © 1975 by Meditsina Publishers © 1983 Englishiangriage edition by IJNEP Translation of a revised text based on the 1975 Russian edition of J<rilCrii vrednosti o gigiene I toksicologii pci otsene khinricheskikk soedi,u'nty hc I. V. Sanotsky and I. P. Ulanova. Printed in the USSR Preface to the English Edition Given the modern rates of chemicals application in industry and agriculture, the environmental protection and control over the population's health represent a major socio-hvgienic issue. It is well known that to-day some 60,000 chemicals are widely used and hence may enter the environment in a certain state and (juantity. The major source of environmental pollution are dis- charges from industrial enterprises. Therefore, it is very impor- tant to assess the safe levels of discharges of such chemicals which would not upset the biological and ecological development of the environment and would not produce a negative impact on man's health. The development and substantiation of the hygienically pres- cribed quantities of various chemicals in the air of the working zone forms one of the main tasks of industrial toxicology. This monograph substantiates the hazard criteria in preventive toxico- logy and hygiene in view of the need to apply correctly the quan- titative rates of hazardous substances in the environment. It also lists materials relating to the assessment of potential and real danger as well as to the classification of hazards presented by poisons at different levels of exposure. The suggested c1ass- fications helped to obtain the data to study toxicity and the hazards of different groups of chemical compounds which are broadly used in the economy. It is known that different actions of chemical substances de- pend, to a large extent, on the peculiarities of the chemical com- position of their molecules. Therefore, the results obtained within closely related groups of chemical substances should be most valid. Bearing this in mind, the monograph discusses such chemi- cals as chlorinated hydrocarbons of the methane and benzene series and their monohalogen derivatives; toluene and its deriva- fives as well as certain heterocyclic compounds. 1* 3 The monograph also contains a review of the rapid assessment methods of safe concentrations of industrial poisons in terms of the cumulative properties of substances and the initial stage of chronic poisoning as well as such problems as the age and spe- des sensitivity to poisons and the use of experimental data on animals in hygienic practice. Besides, the monograph contains an additional chapter on the biological substantiation of the possibility of assessing the aver- age working shift and maximum allowable concentrations. The authors do hope that the monograph would prove useful for those interested in preventive toxicology and would be grate- ful for any critical comments. Scientific power... of toxicology lies in the indivisible triade of clinic, hygiene and experiment, linking them. N. S. Praudin INTROQUCTION Scientific and technical progress has called particular atten- tion of preventive medicine to the tasks of hygienic examination of new occupational and communal situations, hygienic classification and standardization of equipment, raw materials and products, and hygienic limitation of the intensity of harmful occupational and domestic factors. These tasks are covered by preventive' and in particular by hygienic toxicology, which is an independent branch in the whole complex of hygienic sciences. In many cases these tasks are re- duced to a primary evaluation of the toxicity and hazard posed by new chemical compounds, to a toxicological assessment of ma- nufacturing processes for the purpose of substantiation of recom- mendations on possible modifications in the synthesis process in order to eliminate undesirable intermediate products and by-pro- ducts and specify medical and technical requirements to the lay- out, production and hygienic equipment, including that for puri- fication or dispersal, and to individual means of the personnel pr(tection, if required (I. V. Sanotsky, 1974). The above-mentioned preventive measures are based on the use of maximum allowable concentrations (MACs) of substances in the environmental media and in biomedia. The MACs are taken into account in designing and serve as the legal basis in hygienic control. Hygienic control of the air of workplaces, of the atmosphere of residential areas, of water bodies used for public, domestic, fishery and pisciculture purposes, of the soil and focd products has become particularly urgent. Rapid transfer of the mineral re- sourses to the earth surface, an increased production of new syn- thetic materials, introduction of chemical technology into all branches of economy (including agricultural production), and into everyday life create a real threat of an inadequacy of the environ- mental conditions of man and ecologically associated species to their hereditary qualities. I. P. Gerasimov and N. G. Fradkin (1973) have raised the question of the existence of metabolism between nature and society. I Preventive toxicology is a science of prevenlion of imniediale and delayed harrn[ul consequences of the effect of substances on all living organisms in general, not only on man (hygienic toxicology). This circumstance is even more allarming in view of the fact that the rate of environmental changes in some cases exceeds the rate of biological adaptation' both in phylogenesis and in ontoge- nesis. Since the concept of natural selection cannot be applied to man, it is justified to use the concept of esocial adaptatian>>, i. e., the organized activities of society aimed at a limitation of further environment pollution with chemical compounds (G. A. Stepan- sky, 1973; G. F. Helmi, 1973), and at the reduction of the present level of pollution. Social aspect of a successful sollution of the problem of human environmental protection against chemical poi- lution has been studied by E. K. Fiodorov (1972). Traditional subdivision of preventive toxicology in indus- trial, communal, food toxicology, etc. is an analitic stage in the re- search studies of the environment. Scientific conceptions, formu- lated in the USSR, have made it possible to achieve a sigriifi- cant limitation of uncontrolled discharge of chemical substances into the biosphere. In particular, hygienic standards (MACs) of the chemical substances content for the air of workplaces (over 750) for water (over 420 medical and over 40 fishing and pisci- culture standards), for the atmosphere of residential areas (Over 130), for food contaminations (allowable residual quantities of pesticides, etc.), for soil and for cattle-breeding have been sub- st aiit at ed. Much has been done to implement hygienic limitations in in- dustry, agriculture and everyday life. Thus, for example, the cha- racteristics of toxicity and hazard of substances (including cha- racteristics of the quality of their effect) have been assumed as a basis in designing, in the arrangement of ventilation systems and other means of Protection 10 industry, as a basis for regulations on the use of pesticides in agriculture (instructions on methods for hygienic evaluation of new pesticides), of process additives in food industry, domestic chemical preparations, etc. At the same time, many problems remain unresolved. Classi- fications of substances according to their biological effects are riot applied extensively enough in early stages of industrial design work and, in particular, for the selection of appropriate equipment, of purifying and dispersing systems, for substantia- tion of the necessity to create closed cycles of water- and air-supply (non-.waste technologies). The regulations on polymer materials release into the environ- ment are still implemented according to the integral chemical, and not to biological and medical indices (N. I. Shumslcaya, 1971). Such an approach brings about gross mistakes, misguide researchers, inducing them to prohibit entirely certain mixtures of I By the term adaptation we intend true physiological accomodation of the organism or of a polu:lation to the environmental changes. Accomodation <<at any pricea i. e., compensation