Evaluation of 13-week inhalation toxicity of sec-butanethiol in rats

The subchronic toxicity of sec-butanethiol was investigated in Sprague-Dawley rats following a 13-week period of repeated inhalation exposure. Four groups of 10 rats of each sex were exposed to sec-butanethiol vapor by whole-body inhalation at 0, 25, 100, or 400 ppm for 6 h per day, 5 days a week over a 13-week period. At 400 ppm, both genders exhibited a decrease in food consumption, although a decrease in the body weight gain was only observed in females. Hematological investigations revealed a decrease in red blood cell, hemoglobin, and hematocrit in both the male and female groups, whilst the female group exhibited an increase in the mean corpuscular volume and a decrease in the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration. There was an increase in kidney weight for both genders but the liver weight was only higher in males than controls. Histopathological alterations were found in the kidneys, spleen, and nasal olfactory epithelium. There were no treatment-related effects observed in both genders at ⩽100 ppm. Under the present experimental conditions, the target organs were determined to be the blood cells, the kidneys, the liver, and the nasal turbinates in rats. The no-observed-effect level was considered to be 100 ppm in rats.