CONCENTRATION-TIME MORTALITY RESPONSE RELATIONSHIP OF IRRITANT AND SYSTEMICALLY ACTING VAPORS AND GASES

This report presents the re-evaluation of the raw data of previously published acute inhalation toxicity studies of some volatile industrial chemicals. In these studies both concentration and exposure time were varied. The raw data were obtained from an extensive literature search and were subjected to probit analysis. The results show that the product of concentration and exposure time (ct) is not always a good parameter for predicting the mortality response (Haber's rule). On the contrary, the term c**nt, in which the exponent n is different from 1, often predicts the response very well.