Inhalation toxicity studies of cobalt sulfate in F344/N rats and B6C3F1 mice.

Groups of 10 F344/N rats and B6C3F1 mice of each sex were exposed to cobalt sulfate heptahydrate aerosols of 0, 0.3, 1.0, 3.0, 10, or 30 mg/m3, 6 hr per day, 5 days per week, for 13 weeks. All rats and female mice and all but 2/10 male mice exposed at the top concentration survived to the end of the studies. Polycythemia was observed in exposed rats but not in mice. Sperm motility was decreased in mice exposed at 3 mg/m3 (the lowest concentration evaluated) and at higher concentrations, and increased numbers of abnormal sperm and decreased testis and epididymal weights occurred in mice exposed to 30 mg/m3. Cobalt content in the urine of rats increased with increasing atmospheric cobalt exposure. Primary histopathologic effects were limited to the respiratory tract. Lesions in rats and mice included degeneration of the olfactory epithelium, squamous metaplasia of the respiratory epithelium, and inflammation in the nose; inflammation, necrosis, squamous metaplasia, ulcers (rats), and inflammatory polyps (rats) of the larynx; metaplasia of the trachea (mice); and fibrosis, histiocytic infiltrates, bronchiolar epithelial regeneration, and epithelial hyperplasia in the alveoli of the lung. The most sensitive tissue was the larynx, with squamous metaplasia observed in rats and mice at the lowest exposure concentration of 0.3 mg/m3. Thus, a no-observed-adverse-effect level was not reached in these studies.