Chronic and reproduction toxicologic studies on vinyl acetate. Status report

Exposure to vinyl acetate vapor had no effect on survival of rats. A small percentage of early deaths in mice, attributable to respiratory lesions, was possibly associated with inhalation of 600 ppm of vinyl acetate. Body weight gain was lower in both species at higher concentrations. Treatment-related pathology was limited to the respiratory tract. In the nasal cavity, atrophy of the olfactory epithelium with replacement with different cell types was observed in both species at 200 and 600 ppm. Focal leukocyte exudate and hyperplasia were also observed in the nasal cavity of the mice. Epithelial hyperplasia of the trachea was noted at 200 and 600 ppm in the mice only. In the lungs, in both species, foamy histiocytes, epithelial exfoliation and fibroepithelial tags were noted at 600 ppm. In addition, in the mice epithelial hyperplasia was observed at 600 ppm and fibroepithelial tags were observed at 200 ppm.