Toxicity Profile for Sodium arsenates (1991)

Abstract

In humans, sodium arsenates caused skin irritation and skin sensitization. They were of high acute oral toxicity to laboratory animals. Repeated oral administration to rodents and dogs caused damage to the bile ducts, liver and kidney whereas, in cats, changes in the electrical activity of the heart were reported. Foetal deaths and foetal malformations were induced in rodents treated orally or by injection during pregnancy. When fed to rats, chromosome damage in the bone marrow cells was seen and genotoxic effects (including chromosome damage) have also been induced in mammalian cells in culture. No mutagenic activity was detected in Ames bacterial tests, but DNA damage has been produced in bacteria. Though limited studies revealed no evidence that sodium arsenates were carcinogenic to rats and mice by the oral or dermal routes, inorganic arsenic compounds, as a generic class, are carcinogenic to man, producing lung and skin cancer.