Acrylonitrile - Includes Summaries in French and Spanish

This text evaluates the risk to human health and the environment posed by exposures to acrylonitrile.

Acrylonitrile is a volatile, flammable, water-soluble liquid at room temperature.

The large majority of acrylonitrile in Canada is used as a feedstock or chemical aid in the production of nitrilebutadiene rubber and in acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene and styrene-acrylonitrile polymers. Available data from studies in animals indicate that acrylonitrile is a skin, respiratory, and severe eye irritant. Increases in cancer incidence have not been consistently observed in available human epidemiological studies.

A range of tumours in rats' studies are evaluated for carcinogenic potency of acrylonitrile on humans.