Effects of human exposure to atmospheric epsilon-caprolactam

There is little published information on the human toxicology of epsilon-caprolactam, the monomer precursor of nylon 6. This paper reports an investigation of a group of eight workers who had been chronically exposed to atmospheric caprolactam levels of around 70 times the current ACGIH threshold limit value (TLV). No evidence of systemic toxicity was found, although all workers showed a greater or lesser degree of skin change in the form of peeling and/or fissuring.