Research on toxicities and mutagenicities of deltamethrin

Objective To study the acute and subchronic toxicity, irritancy, cumulative effect, allergic effect of deltamethrin.Methods The acute oral toxicities in SD rats and NIH mice, acute dermal, inhalational, cumulative, and subchronic oral toxicity in rats, skin and eye irritation in rabbits, allergic effects in guinea pigs, mutagenicity including Ames assay, mouse bone marrow micronucleus assay and mouse primatocyte chromosome aberration assay were conducted according to the national standardized testing method.Results Acute oral LD 50 were 278 mg/kg and 56.2 mg/kg in rats and mice respectively, while dermal LD 50 2 000 mg/kg and inhalative LC 50 3 000 mg/m 3. Skin and eye irritancy were estimated to be negative and mild respectively. Cumulative coefficient was 2 3 and allergic rate was 0%. A negative result was observed in Ames assay while increased frequencies of bone marrow micronuclei and spermatocyte chromosome aberrations were noted in the high dose (11.24 mg/kg) group. The 90 day oral non effect level in rats was 2 825 mg/kg.Conclusion The observations indicated that deltamethrin showed an obvious cumulative effect in rats and an in vivo susceptibility to the genetic toxicity potential in mammals.