Sensory irritation and pulmonary irritation by airborne allyl acetate, allyl alcohol, and allyl ether compared to acrolein.

The propene derivatives, allyl acetate, allyl alcohol, allyl ether, and acrolein were investigated for their property as sensory irritant in Ssc:CF-1 mice. The concentration of the chemicals necessary to depress the respiratory rate by 50% ( RD50 ) due to sensory irritation of the upper respiratory tract were 2.9, 3.9, 5.0 and 2.9 p.p.m., respectively. The potency of these propene derivatives varied very little for their concentration in air, in p.p.m., to depress the respiratory rate by 50%. However, when the potency is expressed in terms of thermodynamic activity acrolein was found to be 10 times more potent than the other propene derivates. This may be explained either by a higher reactivity of the carbon-carbon double bond or the involvement of the aldehyde group in a secondary chemical binding. No secondary chemical binding can be invoked for allyl acetate, allyl alcohol or allyl ether. In general, the chemical structure CH2 = CH-CH-O may be suspected to allow a molecule to act as a strong sensory irritant. The TLV's were predicted from the relation: TLV approximately equal to 0.03 X RD50 and were found to be 0.1, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.1 for allyl acetate, allyl alcohol, allyl ether, and acrolein, respectively. No pulmonary irritation was found at the concentration causing a 50% decrease in respiratory rate.