Repeated exposure to moxa-burning smoke： its acute and chronic toxicities in rats

• Published in: Journal of traditional Chinese medicine = Chung i tsa chih ying wen pan Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 67 - 75
• Main Authors: Han, Li, Liu, Changxi, Yang, Jia, Lim, Minyee, Zhao, Baixiao, Liu, Ping, Hu, Hai, Cai, Hong, Zhu, Maoxiang, Pan, Xiujie, Huang, Jian, Cui, Yingxue, Lao, Lixing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: China 01.02.2018
• Subjects: 毒性;老鼠;Wistar;MBP;剂量反应;安全水平;学习;sis; Toxicity tests; Environmental exposure; Smoke; Moxibustion
• ISSN: 0255-2922; 2589-451X

OBJECTIVE： To assess toxicities of the air in Chinese medicine clinics polluted by moxa-burning smoke due to moxibustion-derived burning products （MBP）. METHODS： Both acute and chronic toxicity studies were conducted. For the acute toxicity study, five groups of Wistar rats （n = 16/group, male： female = 1 ： 1） were exposed to five different concentrations （95%, 90%, 85%, 80% and 75%, respectively） of MBP for 2 h. For the chronic toxicity study, another three groups of male rats （n = 21/group） were ex- posed to MBP in three concentrations （10%, 40% and 70%, respectively） and one control group ex- posed to clean air 20 min/d for 144 d. Routine ex- aminations were performed and analyzed by analy- sis of variance and dose-response relationship. RESULTS： In the acute toxicity study, the number of dead rats in the 95%, 90%, 85%, 80% and 75% groups were 16, 13, 7, 6 LDS0 of 86.274% after or and 3, respectively, with during the 2 h exposure. In the chronic toxicity study, MBP exposure induced a decline in activity of the rats. Rats in the 10% group showed no signs of toxicity, while those in the 40% MBP group showed toxicity effects on the body weights （P 〈 0.05） and lung. Rats in the 70% MBP group also presented with reversible damage in the blood coagulation system （P 〈 0.05）. CONCLUSION： Exposure to 10% MBP, which is equivalent to 27.45 mg/m^3 was under the critical threshold for male rats＇safety. Exposure to MBP above that limit induced lung damage. MBP in clinics need to be reduced to a safe level with enhanced ventilation.