Health Effects: Irritation-Eyes, Nose, Throat, Skin---Marked (HE14); Lung edema (HE11)
Affected Organs: Eyes, skin, respiratory system
Vapor/air mixtures may be explosive.
Skin patch testing of 192 patients with a history of exposure to various acrylates identified 16 (8.3%) who had an allergic reaction to ethyl acrylate.
Among six acrylate esters tested for hydrolysis by carboxylesterase (porcine liver), ethyl acrylate had the highest maximum rate of acrylic acid production.
Metabolic studies with radiolabeled ethyl acrylate in rats indicated the major metabolite to be carbon dioxide. Urinary metabolites included 3-hydroxypropionic acid and products of conjugation of acrylic acid and ethyl acrylate with glutathione.
Ethyl acrylate is listed among FDA's "food additives permitted for direct addition to food for human consumption" (21 CFR 172.515). It occurs naturally in some fruits (blackberries, raspberries, pineapples and yellow passion fruit).
NTP delisted ethyl acrylate as a suspected human carcinogen because the forestomach tumors in rats and mice appeared to arise from local tissue irritation and ulceration, rather than from a systemic toxicity, and occurred only at oral doses unlikely to be achieved by chronic human exposure.
Ethyl acrylate remains an OSHA Select Carcinogen, due to its evaluation (Group 2B) by the IARC.
No author. Ethyl Acrylate (PDF). Report on Carcinogens (latest edition); U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program.
deBethizy, J.D., Udinsky, J.R., Scribner, H.E. and Frederick, C.B.: The disposition and metabolism of acrylic acid and ethyl acrylate in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Fundam. Appl. Toxicol. 8(4): 549-561, 1987.
Kanerva, L., Jolanki, R. and Estlander, T.: 10 years of patch testing with the (meth)acrylate series. Contact Dermatitis 37(6): 255-258, 1997.
McCarthy, T.J. and Witz, G.: Structure-activity relationships in the hydrolysis of acrylate and methacrylate esters by carboxylesterase in vitro. Toxicology 116(1-3): 153-158, 1997.
Pohanish, R.P. (editor): Ethyl acrylate. Sittig's Handbook of Toxic and Hazardous Chemicals and Carcinogens, Fourth Ed., Vol. 1. Norwich, NY: Noyes Publications, William Andrew Publishing, 2002, pp. 1043-1044.
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