Mutagenic, Carcinogenic, and Teratogenic Effects

Praziquantel is a well tolerated and safe drug. However, it may produce some side effects, the most common of which are abdominal pain, nausea, anorexia, diarrhea or loose stools, dizziness, headache, pruritis, skin eruption and fever, which appear shortly after the drug administration [81,83]. These side effects are usually mild and dose related and disappear within 24 hours. Praziquantel has been found to be free of mutagenic, carcinogenic and teratogenic effects [81,83,84]. 

The dithiocarbamate fungicides have been popular for agricultural use because of their effectiveness and relatively low toxicities to animals. However, there is concern over their environmental breakdown products, particularly ethylenethiourea (2-imidazolidine thione see Figure 17.5), which is toxic to the thyroid and has been shown to be mutagenic, carcinogenic, and teratogenic in experimental animals. 

No mutagenic, carcinogenic, or teratogenic effects have been noted in studies performed using commercially available GB products containing 22-27% flavone glycosides and 5-7% terpene lactones (36). 

The toxicity to mammals of the JH-active insecticides is very low. In the World Health Organization (WHO) classification system, they are all in class III (Table V). The rat oral LD50 (lethal dose in 50% of the population) is >5000 mg/kg, and the toxicity to fish and birds is also low. Indications for mutagenic, carcinogenic, or teratogenic effects are not found. To bee larvae, JH-active insecticides are, of course, rather toxic (e.g., 0.1 pg/bee for hydroprene), while for adult bees they are essentially nontoxic. 

A-Nitroso compounds and specifically the A-nitrosamines exhibit mutagenic, carcinogenic, and teratogenic activities. Around 300 A-nitroso compounds have been tested to detect their carcinogenicity, with this activity found in most of them. It is demonstrated that the nitrosamines develop a carcinogenic effect in a wide range of animal species like fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals, including hve species of primates. " ... 

Acute effects in animals and humans resulting from a cesium deficiency or related to high cesium intake have not been reported. A high intake of cesium is rapidly excreted via the kidneys (Yamagata etal., 1966), and consequently no reports have been made on any chronic effects due to stable cesium intake. Neither have any mutagenic, carcinogenic or teratogenic effects of stable cesium been either studied or described. 

Episodic pollution events can adequately be addressed by acute toxicity bioassays, however these are not sufficient to investigate the water quality for delayed toxicity effects of chemicals present. Chronic effects of pesticides can include carcinogenicity, teratogenicity, mutagenicity, neurotoxicity, and reproductive effects (endocrine disruption). 

Trifluridine is mutagenic in vitro and carcinogenic and teratogenic when administered subcutaneously to animals. Topical trifluridine was not teratogenic in animal studies. Because it is applied topically in humans, the likelihood of systemic effects is low. 

Because of their diversity of chemical structures and differing physical properties, mycotoxins exhibit a wide array of biological effects on mammalian systems and individual mycotoxins can be genotoxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, embryotoxic, teratogenic or oestrogenic (Smith and Henderson, 1991). Some... 

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