Biological Safety Evaluation of Animal Contact of Preservative-Treated Wood
IRG/WP 03-50196
Dong-heub Lee, Dong-won Son, Myung Jae Lee, Chang Ho Kang, Cheon Ho Kim, Eui-Bai Jeung
Biological safety of preservative-treated woods that could be contacted to human and animal was evaluated for rat and rabbit exposed to CCA-, ACQ- and CCFZ-treated woods. The accumulation of preservatives ingredient in the rat’s plasma and viscera, and the transforming function of replacing preservatives were examined in this study. The result indicated that preservative-treated wood did not bring changes for the enzyme related with replacing function of preservative components in the plasma. The accumulated amount of chrome from the CCA-treated wood was detected to be very small quantity, which was less than the measurement range. However, the presence of arsenic was detected in lung, liver, and heart of rats. Furthermore, the amount of accumulated arsenic in rat's viscera was greater than that of the untreated control. Copper, a common as ingredient of all CCA-, CCFZ- and ACQ-treated woods was detected in the liver of rat exposed to the CCA-treated sample. And the copper was also detected in the lung and liver of rat exposed to the ACQ-treated samples, while it was also present in the both liver and heart of rats exposed to the CCFZ-treated sample.
To evaluate dermal safety of preservative-treated wood, clinical formulations were prepared by dissolving ACQ, CCA, and CCFZ in saline solution at five times concentration of normal treatment. Dermal irritation test was repeated for nine rabbits using the prepared solution. No changes were detected for rabbits exposed to daily dermal irritation using the solution for 14 days. And cumulative dermal irritation (CDI) score using the solution for 14 days was equal to zero. This result demonstrated that the local irritation of the preservatives tested to the intact skin was negligible. Histopathological examination revealed no hemorrhage and edematous change of the subcutaneous tissue in the rabbits treated with ACQ, CCA and CCFZ.