Table 1.
Chemicals Selected for Testing.
| Compound * | Abbreviation | CAS RN | LD50 | Oral RfD | TWI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sodium (meta)arsenite | NaAsO2 | 7784–46-5 | 41 mg/kg (rat, oral) | 0.3 µg/kg-day (IRIS, 1991) | withdrawn # |
| dimethylarsinic acid (DMAV) | DMA | 75–60-5 | 700 mg/kg (rat, oral) 1.2 g/kg (mouse, oral) |
not established | not established |
| mercury chloride | HgCl2 | 7487–94-7 | 1 mg/kg (rat, oral) 6 mg/kg (mouse, oral) |
0.3 µg/kg-day (IRIS, 1995) | 4 µg Hg/kg-week (EFSA, 2012) |
| methylmercury chloride | meHgCl | 115–09-3 | 30 mg/kg (rat, oral) 58 mg/kg (mouse, oral) |
0.1 µg/kg-day (IRIS, 2001) | 1.3 µg Hg/kg-week (EFSA, 2012) |
CAS RN: The Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Registration Number (RN) is a unique numerical identifier designating a specific substance.
LD50: the median lethal dose per kilogram of body weight.
RfD: Reference Dose for chronic oral exposure, an estimate of a daily exposure that is likely to be without.
an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime.
TWI: tolerable weekly intake, the amount per kilogram of body weight that can be ingested per week without risk of adverse health effects.
# Provisional TWI of 15 µg As/kg was withdrawn in 2009 as too high for safety (Naess et al., 2020).
* Compounds and CAS RNs listed are those purchased and used in this study. Reference values (LD50, RfD, and TWI) may be for slightly different compounds, for example the available oral RfD is for methylmercury, CAS RN 22967–92-6.