Toxicity Profile for 2-Mercaptobenzothiazole and its sodium salt (1990)

Abstract

Mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) is a potent skin sensitizer in man and cross reactions with other rubber chemicals can occur. It is also a skin irritant in man. A solution of the sodium salt caused irreversible damage to the rabbit eye. MBT and its sodium salt were of low acute general toxicity in laboratory animals treated by the oral and dermal routes. The target sites following oral administration included the central nervous system (CNS), lung, liver, kidney and gastro-intestinal tract, and rabbits treated dermally also suffered CNS effects. According to brief summaries, feeding MBT to rats produced no conclusive evidence of reproductive effects. Comprehensive oral studies generated some evidence of carcinogenicity in rats; results in mice were inconclusive. MBT and its sodium salt gave no evidence of mutagenicity in Ames bacterial assays, but MBT was mutagenic and induced chromosomal damage in mammalian cells in culture.