Comparative study on toxic effects induced by oral or intravascular administration of commonly used disinfectants and surfactants in rats

Accidental ingestion or injection of household products sometimes occurs due to their accessibility, but the toxic manifestations have not been well characterized when they are internally administered. The aim of this study was to investigate the toxic effects induced by ingestion or injection of different ionic surfactants and disinfectants in rats. The test drugs involved benzalkonium and benzethonium (BZK and BZT, both cationic surfactants used as disinfectants), alkyldiaminoethylglycine (AEG, an amphoteric surfactant used as a disinfectant), linear alkylbenzenesulfonate (LAS, an anionic surfactant), polyoxyethylene cetylether (PEC, a nonionic surfactant), chlorhexidine (CHX, not a surfactant but a disinfectant) and saline (control). Male Sprague–Dawley rats were administered one of the test drugs orally (p.o.), intravenously (i.v.) or intraarterially (i.a.). The fatal effects appeared rapidly (<30 min) in i.v.‐administered rats, while taking hours (>5 h) in i.a./p.o.‐administered rats after a dose of around LD₅₀, although the progress and degree of toxic effects varied among the drugs tested. In intravascular administration, BZK and BZT were fatal at doses of 15–20 mg kg^?1. Higher concentrations in lung and kidney than in blood were determined. CHX showed a high toxic effect compared with cationic surfactants. The rats administered anionic (LAS) or amphoteric (AEG) surfactant died in less than 24 h at doses over 100 mg kg^?1. In p.o. administration, the toxic effects were concentration/dose‐dependent, and all rats administered high doses of surfactants except for PEC died at 5–20 h. The overall toxic ranks could be: cationic surfactant/CHX> anionic/amphoteric surfactant > nonionic surfactant. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.