Laboratory rats drinking water

Other investigators have been unable to demonstrate lead-induced effects on various components of the immune system in laboratory animals. The effects of lead exposure of varying duration on natural killer cell and T-lymphocytc function were investigated in rats. Male Alderly Park rats received lead as lead acetate in the drinking water at lead concentrations equivalent to 14.3 and 143 mg lead/kg/day for... 

Humiston CG, Frauson LO, Quast JF, et al. 1975. A 90-day oral toxicity study incorporating acrylonitrile in the drinking water of rats. Dow Chemical Company, Health and Environmental Research, Toxicology Research Laboratory, Midland, Ml. 

Musculoskeletal Effects. Muscle pains in the arms and legs were reported by a man who worked in a laboratory for 13.5 years where he distilled phenol several times a day (Merliss 1972). Because heavy odors were detected and phenol was spilled on his clothes resulting in skin irritation, dermal and inhalation exposures were involved. Histopathological changes in the bone were not observed in rats or mice provided with phenol in the drinking water for 13 or 103 weeks (NCI 1980). Musculoskeletal effects are unlikely to occur at the exposure levels found in the environment or near hazardous waste sites. 

Jorgenson TA, Rushbrook CJ. 1980. Effects of chloroform in the drinking water of rats and mice Ninety-day subacute toxicity study. Report by SRI International, Menlo Park, CA to Health Effects Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH. 

Seal, B.S. and H.J. Weeth. 1980. Effect of boron in drinking water on the male laboratory rat. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 25 782-789. 

As discussed earlier, chloroform and dichloroacetic acid are formed as byproducts when drinking water is chlorinated (Section 8.9). In a study on laboratory rats, the co-administration of dichloroacetic acid and chloroform was found to greatly increase the liver toxicity of chloroform J23 ... 

Reproductive Effects. In samples from more than 200 men, no correlation between seminal fluid selenium and sperm count or mobility was detected. No significant increase in spontaneous abortions was reported among women chronically exposed to drinking water containing excessive amounts of selenium. Oral or injection treatment of rats with sodium selenate or selenite (at doses at least 8 times greater than those normally supplied by an adequate diet) has been shown to increase the number of abnormal sperm, produce testicular hypertrophy, or degeneration and atrophy in males, and to affect the estrous cycle in females. The animals in these studies were not mated, so it is not clear if fertility was affected. A small increase in the number of abnormal length estrous cycles was observed in mice exposed to selenium. Disturbances in the menstrual cycle (anovulation, short luteal and follicular phases) were also observed in monkeys treated orally with L-selenomethionine. Selenium deficiency has also been reported to cause decreased sperm production and motility in rats. The relevance of these reproductive effects of selenium in laboratory animals to potential reproductive effects in humans is not known. 

Schneider et al. [85] completed a study of RDX accumulation in the tissue of laboratory rats following a 90-d exposure in drinking water (50-70 mg L1) and by oral gavage (20 mg kg 1 day). About one-third of the total radiolabel was excreted in the urine, another third of the total label was excreted as 14C02, and only 5% excreted in the feces. RDX did not accumulate in any tissue examined. 

No effect on any haematopoietic neoplasms has been foimd in CD-I mice treated with MTBE or in BeCsFi mice treated with TBA or methanol. Thus, the response described by Belpoggi et al. has not been described in another rat study with MTBE, in a mouse study with MTBE or in either rats or mice treated with the more persistent of the primary metabolites of MTBE. The only support for their result is the drinking water study of methanol conducted in rats within the same laboratory [133]. 

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