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Pyrethroids are potent synthetic insecticides which have been increasingly employed in recent years. Such compounds have been shown to bind covalently to hepatic proteins. Covalent binding is often associated with toxic effects. Possible cytotoxic, cytogenotoxic and allergenic effects could be due to covalent binding of these compounds and/or their metabolites to endogenous macromolecules. In the present paper we examine possible cytotoxic effects of certain pyrethroids on human lymphocytes and L 1210 lymphoblastoid mouse cells, cytogenotoxic effects with micronuclei test and allergenic effects with Magnusson and mast cell degranulation tests. Under our experimental conditions, the tested compounds showed neither acute cytotoxic nor cytogenotoxic effects, though, Cismethrin presented slight antimitotic effects statistically different to those with the control. Slight allergenic character of Cismethrin, Bioresmethrin and Deltamethrin was revealed by Magnusson and mast cell degranulation tests.

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