ACUTE EFFECTS OF TRICHLOROETHYLENE ON BLOOD-CONCENTRATIONS AND PERFORMANCE DECREMENTS IN RATS AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO HUMANS

This study was designed to clarify the nature of effects of trichloroe thylene (TCE) on the central nervous system, and to determine the crit ical concentrations in blood associated with specific behavioural chan ges. This was achieved by a follow up of the whole time course of TCE intoxication during and after exposure. The effects of a single four h our exposure to TCE on signalled bar press shock avoidance in rats wer e tested by methods previously applied to investigate the acute neurob ehavioural effects of exposure to toluene. The effects of TCE on the c entral nervous system were different from those of toluene. Even low e xposure to TCE induced shock avoidance performance decrements in rats. Rats exposed to 250 ppm TCE showed a significant decrease both in the total number of lever presses and in avoidance responses at 140 minut es of exposure compared with controls. The rats did not recover their preexposure performance until 140 minutes after the exhaustion of TCE vapour. Exposures in the range 250 ppm to 2000 ppm TCE for four hours produced concentration related decreases in the avoidance response rat e. No apparent acceleration of the reaction time was seen during expos ure to 1000 or 2000 ppm TCE. The latency to a light signal was somewha t prolonged during the exposure to 2000 to 4000 ppm TCE. It is estimat ed that there was depression of the central nervous system with slight performance decrements and the corresponding blood concentration was 40 mug/ml during exposure. Depression of the central nervous system wi th anaesthetic performance decrements was produced by a blood TCE conc entration of about 100 mug/ml. These results showed effects of TCE on the central nervous system that were considered to be a function of bo th the exposure concentration and the duration of exposure, which are closely related to the TCE concentration in blood.