Toxicity evaluation of petroleum blending streams: reproductive and developmental effects of a distillate from light...

A distillate of light alkylate naphtha (CAS number 64741-66-8; LAN distillate) was administered via inhalation, 6 h/d, 7 d/wk to 4 groups of Sprague-Dawley rats (10/sex/dose) at target concentrations of 0 (filtered air control), 5, 12.5, or 25 g/m3 with the highest dose exceeding 60% of the lower explosive limit of LAND. Exposure began 2 wk prior to mating and continued throughout gestation until postnatal d 4 for females or for 8 consecutive weeks for males. No apparent clinical signs indicative of systemic toxicity were observed in the F0 and F1 animals of either sex. Inhalation exposure to LAND up to and including the 25 g/m3 dose level had no effect on parental food consumption, body weights, absolute and relative organ weights, and reproductive indices. All groups had comparable delivery data and a fertility index > or 80%. Pups in all groups showed comparable birth weights, weight gain, a viability index (postnatal d 4) for all groups of > or = 97%, and no histopathological changes. In the dams, there were no significant differences in the mean numbers of corpora lutea, implantation sites, and resorptions recorded at necropsy. In the males, the only remarkable findings at necropsy were a small right epididymis and testis seen in one mid-dose male and an abscess on the right epididymis of a high-dose male. In both cases, the dams that had been bred to these males produced normal litters. There were no test material-related microscopic changes observed in the testes and epididymis of the F0 male rats or ovaries of the F0 female rats exposed to LAND. Under the conditions of this experiment, the no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) for LAND via inhalation in rats is established at greater than 24.7 g/m3 (analytical concentration).