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An Investigation of the Oncogenic Activity of Two Representative Epoxy Resins^*

( Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and Dept. of Pathology, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, Calif.)

An evaluation has been made of the oncogenic activity of two uncured epoxy resins. A liquid bisphenol-based epoxy resin produced no carcinomas in C3H mice when applied thrice weekly for 2 years in a concentration of 5 per cent. Carcinomas were produced by a liquid aliphatic epoxy resin at this level, but with a tumor potency of only 9 as compared with 264 for the positive control, 20-methylcholanthrene. The resins by subcutaneous injection in rats showed TT₅₀ (time at which 50 per cent of the animals would be expected to carry tumors) of 100 and 157 weeks, and tumor potencies (10,000 divided by TT₅₀ in days) of 14 and 9, respectively, as compared with a TT₅₀ of 53 weeks and a tumor potency of 24 for 1,2,5,6-dibenzanthracene. Injection of either of these ressins, two solid bisphenol-based epoxy resins of higher molecular weight, or of diglycidyl resorcinol, poly(allyl glycidyl ether), or epoxodized soybean oil did not alter the incidence of pulmonary adenoma in strain A mice over a period of 16 weeks. Feeding 0.2 per cent of either liquid resin in the diet for 11 months also did not alter the incidence, nor did similar feeding for 16 weeks alter the incidence of induced tumors in mice pretreated with 20-methylcholanthrene.

On the basis of this study, the potential hazard of skin irritation or carcinogenesis would seem to be obviated by the ordinary good industrial hygiene practices.

^* Presented before the American Industrial Hygiene Association, April, 1957, St. Louis, Mo.

Supported in part by a grant from the Shell Development Company, Emeryville, California.

Received 4/22/57.