FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-77/9

Title and Subtitle: Inhalation toxicology: I. Design of a small-animal test system. II. Determination of the relative toxic hazards of 75 aircraft cabin materials

Report Date: March 1977

Authors: Crane CR, Sanders DC, Endecott BR, Abbott JK, Smith PW

Abstract: In an effort to further the cause of increased safety for those who ride in commercial aircraft, this paper presents a detailed description of the genesis of a small-scale, laboratory test system that utilizes small animals to evaluate the relative toxic hazard of combustion products generated by the thermal decomposition of nonmetallic materials. It includes:

• a discussion of the concepts that led to the design;
• detailed instructions for fabricating the system;
• operating parameters and instructions for conducting a test;
• an evaluation of the system's performance as determined by the testing of 75 aircraft cabin materials;
• the utilization of animal response time as a basis for expressing relative toxicity;
• and a discussion of the derivation of an inhalation dose concept that promises to be more useful than lethal concentrations.

Key Words: Inhalation toxicology, Combustion toxicology, Pyrolysis products, Time-to-incapacitation, Time-to-death, Cyanide toxicity, Aircraft cabin materials, Relative toxic hazard, Animal exposure system, Effective inhalation dose

No. of Pages: 59