vapona

[Paul Cherubini]

Fulvio wrote:

> IARC : Group 3, not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans

Thanks for pointing out that fairly recently Vapona was (due to the
results of new long term animal chronic toxicity studies)  DOWNGRADED by
the EPA from  a Group 2 "possible human carcinogen" to a Group 3 "not
classifiable as to it carcinogenicity to humans".  In other words,Vapona
has not been found to reliably induce cancer in modern animal studies. 

> SYMPTOM : Miosis, aching eyes; rhinorrhea; headaches; tight chest,
> wheezing,laryngeal spasms; salivation; cyanosis; anorexia, nausea,
> vomiting,diarrhea; sweating; muscle fasciculation, paralysis,
> giddiness, ataxia;convulsions;
> low blood pressure; cardiac irregularities; skin, eyeirritation
> HEALTH EFFECTS : Cholinesterase inhibition 

Yes, as with virtually any chemical, there are acute toxic effects when
the dose is high enough.  But the Vapona strips have an impressive 30+
year safety record.  The Vapona resin strips release TINY amounts of
Vapona over a 4+ month period. The symptoms listed above do not show up
unless one foolishly ignores the label directions (recommending 1 strip
per 1000 cubic feet) and hangs alot of strips in a small room. There
have been a few cases when people did this and got ill, but they
recovered within a day when removed from the overdosed room (the liver
fairly rapidly detoxifies organophosphorous chemicals like Vapona).

> LD50 (oral,rat)
> 56-80 mg/kg

This LD 50 of 56-80 mg/kg is based on the 96% LIQUID MANUFACTURING
CONCENTRATE that chemical formulating companies use to make the much
more diluted consumer end use preparations like the 20% Vapona solid
resin strips, the 05% liquid sprays used in dairies and on horses and
the 5% liquid sprays used (in automatic fogging systems) to fog food
processing plants.  If you measured the LD50 of a .05% end use spray it
would be well over 1000 mg/kg --more like the ingestion toxicity of
table salt.

Paul Cherubini, El Dorado, California