Mutagenicity of rubber vulcanization gases in Salmonella typhimurium.

Gases formed by rubber and rubber additives in the vulcanization process were collected with a laboratory-scale glass apparatus. Mutagenicity testing of the vulcanization gases by the Salmonella/microsome test was conducted with strains TA1535, TA1538, TA98, and TA100 in the absence and presence of a metabolizing system from rat liver homogenates. The mutagenicity of gases derived by heating chloroprene rubber and ethylene propylene rubber was established with both base substitution- and frameshift-sensitive strains and that of a styrene-butadiene rubber was established with the base substitution-sensitive stain TA100. Tests on pyrolysis gases from a butadiene acrylonitrile rubber revealed only toxic effects. Curing systems, additives, and filling materials from various sources were represented in the material. Gases were collected at temperature levels corresponding to both mixing and curing of these particular rubbers in the industrial operations. Attempts were made to correlate the mutagenicity of the gases to the presence of mutagenic components in the rubber mixtures.