Dermal Absorption of Modular Artillery Charge (XM231)

Soldiers handling modular artillery propellant increments may have the potential to absorb chemical components through the skin of the hands. The purpose of this research was to determine if systemic absorption of chemical components of the new Modular Artillery Charge System (MACS) might be a hazard in operational military environments. The MACS includes a low zone XM23 1 increment and a high zone XM232 increment. For this study we sampled the surfaces of randomly selected XM232 MACS increments, which were stored under extreme environmental conditions, to determine the concentrations of various propellant components (nitrocellulose, dinitrotoluene, dibutylphthalate, and diphenylamine). After eleven months of storage, the only chemical components found on the surface of the cartridges were very small quantities of nitroglycerin and diphenylamine. The precise origin of the nitroglycerin could not be determined. Nitroglycerin is a subcomponent of the ball powder used in the center core igniter but also could have been a residual artifact from previous storage of XM232 increments within the ammunition cans used with XM231 increments in this study. We used excised rat skin in static diffusion cells to investigate dermal absorption of Ml propellant in powdered form. No chemical components of Ml propellant penetrated the skin. Our results suggest that chemical components of the XM231 are not absorbed sufficiently to be a systemic hazard under operational handling and loading conditions.