Abstract |
Toxicity studies were performed with pesticide and fertilizer mixtures representative of groundwater contamination found in California and Iowa. The California mixtures was composed of aldicarb, atrazine, 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane, 1,2-dichloropropane, ethylene dibromode, simazine, and ammonium nitrate. The Iowa mixture contained alachlor, atrazine, cyanazine, metolachlor, metribuzin, and ammonium nitrate. The mixtures were administered in drinking water (with 512 ppm propylene glycol) to F344/N rats and B6C3F1 mice of each sex at concentrations ranging from 0.1X to 100X, where 1X represented the median concentrations of the individual chemicals found in studies of groundwater contamination from normal agricultural activities. This report focuses primarily on 26-week toxicity studies describing histopathology, clinical pathology, neurobehavior/neuropathology, and reproductive system effects. The genetic toxicity of the mixtures was assessed by determining the frequency of micronuclei in peripheral blood of mice and evaluating micronuclei and sister chromatid exchanges in splenocytes from female mice and male rats. |