1.Toxicokinetics
Absorption
Studies in humans and animals have shown that vinyl chloride is readily absorbed through the lungs. The primary route of exposure to VC is inhalation.
-inhalation route:
Inhalation absorption of vinyl chloride is rapid in humans.
Results from young adult male volunteers exposed to vinyl chloride monomer concentrations of 7.5-60 mg/m3 (2.9-23.5 ppm) by gas mask for 6 hours showed that retention (mean 42%) was independent of the VC concentration inhaled and reached the highest level of 46% in the first 15 min of exposure.
Since retention did not change with increasing vinyl chloride concentrations, it appears that saturation of the major pathway of overall metabolism did not occur in this exposure regimen.
-oral route:
No studies were located regarding absorption in humans after oral exposure to vinyl chloride.
Several studies in rats indicate that vinyl chloride is rapidly and virtually completely absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract.
-dermal route:
No studies were located regarding absorption in humans after dermal exposure to vinyl chloride.
On the basis of animal data , which suggest that dermal absorption of vinyl chloride vapor is not likely to be significant, it is argued that no significant percutaneous absorption would be expected under occupational exposure conditions.
Distribution
In general, concentrations of vinyl chloride found in fat are higher than would be found in other tissues.
No studies were located that reported tissue distribution after inhalation, oral or dermal exposure to vinyl chloride in humans.
Animal studies indicate that although vinyl chloride is largely eliminated via the lungs after inhalation, its distribution is rapid and widespread. However, its storage in the body is limited because of rapid metabolism and excretion.
Metabolism
The primary metabolic pathway observed is the epoxidation of vinyl chloride (see fig) to chloroethylene oxide (CEO), which can rearrange spontaneously to chloroacetaldehyde (CAA) (Uziel et al, 1992). The main enzymatic pathway for metabolism of vinylchloride requires microsomal mixed function oxidase, oxygen and NADPH are required as cofactors. In addition, CEO can be hydrolyzed by the enzyme epoxide hydrolase to glycolaldehyde. Vinyl chloride may also be oxidized to 2-chloroethanol and then via alcohol dehydrogenase to CAA. CAA can be oxidized by aldehyde dehydrogenase to 2-chloroacetic acid. 2-Chloroacetic acid can also bind to glutathione to form S-carboxymethylglutathione, which can also be formed from S-formylmethylglutathione. CEO and CAA can react with glutathione via glutathione epoxide transferase (or other glutathione transferases) to form S-formylmethylglutathione. Further metabolism (not shown in fig) occurs with conversion of S-formylmethylglutathione to S-Carboxymethylcysteine and S-(2-hydroxyethyl)-cysteine. N-acetylation of S-(2-hydroxyethyl)-cysteine then yields N-acetyl-S-(2-hydroxyethyl)-cysteine, thiodiglycolate is formed from S-carboxymethyl-cysteine by deamination (Whysner et al, 1996).