Mutagenic Potential of Permethrin in the Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera:Drosophilidae) Sex-Linked Recessive Lethal Test

摘要

Permethrin is a contact toxicant-repellent that is quick acting, nearly odorless,nonstaining, and resistant to degradation when exposed to sunlight and heat. It has low mammalian toxicity and has been widely used in controlling agricultural and medical arthropods since the early 1980s. Permethrin is now being evaluated by the U.S. Army for a possible impregnant for the military Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) and for packaging Meal-Ready-to-Eat (MRE). These proposed uses would subject many soldiers to long-term exposure to minute quantities of permethrin. Because a borderline positive response in a mouse bone marrow assay has been reported (Paldy 1981), permethrin may be a mutagen. Therefore, we evaluated its mutagenic potential in the Drosophila melanogaster Meigen sex-linked recessive lethal (SLRL) assay. Reprints. (JS)