1.1 What is acrylonitrile? |
1.2 How might I be exposed to acrylonitrile? |
1.3 How can acrylonitrile enter and leave
my body? |
1.4 How can acrylonitrile affect my health? |
1.5 What levels of exposure have resulted
in harmful health effects? |
1.6 Is there a medical test to determine
whether I have been exposed to acrylonitrile? |
1.7 What recommendations has the federal
government made to protect human health? |
1.8 Where can I get more information? |
References |
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December 1990 |
Public Health Statement |
for |
Acrylonitrile |
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This Public Health Statement is the
summary chapter from the Toxicological
Profile for acrylonitrile. It is one in a series of Public
Health Statements about hazardous substances and their health
effects. A shorter version, the ToxFAQs™,
is also available. This information is important because this
substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous
substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed,
personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are
present. For more information, call the ATSDR Information
Center at 1-888-422-8737.
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This Statement was prepared to give you
information about acrylonitrile and to emphasize the human
health effects that may result from exposure to it The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has identified 1,177 sites on its
National Priorities List (NPL). Acrylonitrile has been found
at 3 of these sites. However, we do not know how many of the
1,177 NPL sites have been evaluated for acrylonitrile. As
EPA evaluates more sites, the number of sites at which acrylonitrile
is found may change. The information is important for you
to know because acrylonitrile may cause harmful health effects
and because these sites are potential or actual sources of
human exposure to acrylonitrile.
When a chemical is released from a large
area, such as an industrial plant, or from a container, such
as a drum or bottle, it enters the environment as a chemical
emission. This emission, which is also called a release, does
not always lead to exposure. You can be exposed to a chemical
only when you come into contact with the chemical. You may
be exposed to it in the environment by breathing, eating,
or drinking substances containing the chemical or from skin
contact with it.
If you are exposed to a hazardous substance
such as acrylonitrile, several factors will determine whether
harmful health effects will occur and what the type and severity
of those health effects will be. These factors include the
dose (how much), the duration (how long), the route or pathway
by which you are exposed (breathing, eating, drinking, or
skin contact), the other chemicals to which you are exposed,
and your individual characteristics such as age, sex, nutritional
status, family traits, life style, and state of health.
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1.1
What is acrylonitrile? |
Acrylonitrile is a colorless, liquid,
man-made chemical with a sharp, onion or garlic-like odor.
Acrylonitrile is used mostly to make plastics, acrylic fibers,
and synthetic rubber. Because acrylonitrile evaporates quickly,
it is most likely to be found in the air around chemical plants
where it is made. Acrylonitrile breaks down quickly in the
air. It has been found in small amounts in the water and soil
near manufacturing plants and hazardous waste sites. In water,
acrylonitrile usually breaks down in about 1 to 2 weeks, although
this can vary depending on conditions. For example, high concentrations
of acrylonitrile (such as might occur after a spill) tend
to be broken down more slowly. In one case, measurable amounts
of acrylonitrile were found in nearby wells 1 year after a
spill.
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1.2
How might I be exposed to acrylonitrile? |
Unless you live near a factory where
acrylonitrile is made or near a hazardous waste site that
contains acrylonitrile, you are unlikely to be exposed to
acrylonitrile in the air you breathe or the water you drink.
Concentrations of acrylonitrile in average air samples are
too low to be measured, and most water samples also have no
measurable acrylonitrile. Measurable amounts of acrylonitrile
are found primarily near factories and hazardous waste sites.
Concentrations in the air near a factory producing or using
acrylonitrile average less than 1 part per billion (ppb).
Extremely small amounts of acrylonitrile may be found in water
near some factories that make or use it, but acrylonitrile
rapidly breaks down and disappears from water. Plastic
food containers that are made from acrylonitrile are regulated
by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) such that only 0.17
ppb can enter food; therefore, acrylonitrile intake from food
packaging would be extremely low. Because acrylonitrile has
been found in water and soil in some hazardous waste sites
that contain this chemical, residents living very close to
waste sites might possibly be exposed to acrylonitrile by
breathing the air or drinking contaminated groundwater.
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1.3
How can acrylonitrile enter and leave my body? |
Acrylonitrile can enter your body if
you breathe its vapors or eat or drink acrylonitrile-contaminated
food or water. Acrylonitrile can pass through your skin,
but how much gets through is not known. Inside the body, acrylonitrile
is broken down into other chemicals, including cyanide. Most
of these breakdown products are removed from the body in the
urine. Overall, most acrylonitrile is removed from the
body within 24 hours, but approximately 25% of what is taken
in becomes attached to materials inside cells of the body.
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1.4
How can acrylonitrile affect my health? |
The effects of acrylonitrile on your
health depend on how much you take into your body and whether
you are exposed for a short or long period of time. If the
levels of acrylonitrile are high enough, or if the exposure
is for a long enough period of time, acrylonitrile can cause
death. Small children are more likely to be affected than
adults. In several cases, children died following exposures
that adults found only mildly irritating. It should be noted
that specific levels of acrylonitrile causing death were not
reported.
Exposure to large amounts of acrylonitrile
for a short period of time, as might occur in the case of
an industrial accident, results mainly in effects on the nervous
system. Symptoms can include headache and nausea. At higher
concentrations of acrylonitrile there may be temporary damage
to red blood cells and the liver. These symptoms disappear
when the exposure is stopped.
Direct contact of your skin with acrylonitrile
will damage the skin so that it may blister and peel. Exposure
of the skin to high concentrations of acrylonitrile in the
air may irritate the skin and cause it to turn red. The redness
may last for several days.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services has determined that acrylonitrile may reasonably
be anticipated to be a carcinogen. Long-term exposure to acrylonitrile
in air or water may increase your chances of getting cancer.
Humans who are repeatedly exposed to acrylonitrile in the
workplace for many years may have a higher-than-average chance
of developing lung cancer, although this is not clearly established.
In animals, exposure to acrylonitrile in the air or in drinking
water has been found to increase the number of tumors occurring
in the brain, salivary glands, and intestines.
Birth defects have been seen in animals
exposed to high concentrations of acrylonitrile in the air
or drinking water. Reproductive effects have been seen
in animals given acrylonitrile in drinking water for three
generations. However, no birth defects or effects on reproduction
have been reported in humans.
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1.5
What levels of exposure have resulted in harmful health effects? |
In humans, breathing acrylonitrile at
a concentration of 16 parts of acrylonitrile per million parts
of air (ppm) causes headaches, nausea, and disorientation.
This concentration is close to that at which acrylonitrile
can be smelled in air (about 21 ppm). Breathing acrylonitrile
in air for long periods of time and at high concentrations
can cause death. The actual concentrations of acrylonitrile
and breathing times which cause death have not been measured.
There is no information on human health effects from eating
or drinking acrylonitrile. Acrylonitrile can be smelled at
a concentration of 19 ppm when dissolved in water.
In animals, drinking water that contains
142 ppm of acrylonitrile has caused nervous system disorders
leading to death. Birth defects and effects on reproduction
have occurred in animals that breathed acrylonitrile in air
at levels of 80 ppm or drank it in water at 180 ppm.
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1.6
Is there a medical test to determine whether I have been exposed
to acrylonitrile? |
There is a test that can detect acrylonitrile
in blood. In addition, the major breakdown products of acrylonitrile
by the body (termed metabolites) can be measured in urine.
Some breakdown products that can be measured are specific
to acrylonitrile. However, one breakdown product of
the body (cyanide) that is commonly measured is not specific
to acrylonitrile exposure, and the results can be affected
by cigarette smoking. Because special equipment is needed,
these tests cannot be performed routinely in your doctor's
office. There is not enough information at present to use
the results of such tests to predict the nature or severity
of any health effects that may result from exposure to acrylonitrile.
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1.7
What recommendations has the federal government made to protect
human health? |
The EPA recommends that levels in lakes
and streams should be limited to 0.058 parts of acrylonitrile
per billion parts of water (0.058 ppb) to prevent possible
health effects from drinking water or eating fish contaminated
with acrylonitrile. Any release to the environment greater
than 100 pounds of acrylonitrile must be reported to the EPA.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) has set a limit of 2 ppm over an 8-hour workday, 40-hour
workweek.
The National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that average workplace
air should not exceed 1 ppm acrylonitrile averaged over a
10-hour period.
The federal recommendations have been
updated as of July 1999.
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1.8 Where can I get more information? |
If you have any more questions or concerns, please contact
your community or state health or environmental quality department or:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Division of Toxicology
1600 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop F-32
Atlanta, GA 30333
Information line and technical assistance:
Phone: 888-422-8737
FAX: (770)-488-4178
ATSDR can also tell you the location of occupational and environmental health
clinics. These clinics specialize in recognizing, evaluating, and treating illnesses
resulting from exposure to hazardous substances.
To order toxicological profiles, contact:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Phone: 800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000
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References |
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry (ATSDR). 1990. Toxicological
profile for acrylonitrile. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service.
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