Chronic inhalation toxicity and oncogenicity of methyl methacrylate in rats and hamsters

Male and female Fischer 344 rats were exposed to methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer vapours at 0, 25, 100 and 400 ppm, 6 hr/day, 5 days/wk for 24 months and male and female Golden hamsters were exposed to similar vapour concentrations of MMA for 18 months. Parameters monitored throughout the study included clinical signs, individual body weights, haematology, clinical chemistry (rats only) and urinalyses (rats only). 10 rats per sex per exposure group were killed after 13 and 52 wk of exposure and all surviving rats were killed during wk 104-106. All surviving hamsters were killed at wk 78. Mortality and haematological, clinical chemistry and urinalyses parameters were not affected by MMA exposure. Body weights of male rats were not affected by exposure to MMA while body weights of female rats exposed to 400 ppm were lower than control values after wk 52. Male and female hamsters exposed to 400 ppm had body weight decreases ranging from 9 to 12% after wk 48. The nasal cavity was identified as the target organ for chronic toxicity in male and female rats exposed to 100 or 400 ppm. The microscopic nasal cavity changes occurred primarily in olfactory epithelium lining the dorsal meatus and consisted of degeneration of neuroepithelium, basal cell hyperplasia and atrophy of Bowman's glands. Hamsters did not have demonstrable nasal cavity microscopic changes. Chronic exposure to MMA vapour did not cause tumours in either rats or hamsters.