Acrylonitrile can pass through your skin, but how much gets through is not known. Inside the body, acrylonitrile is broken down into other chemicals, including cyanide. Most of these breakdown products are removed from the body in the urine. The effects of acrylonitrile on your health depend on how much you take into your body and whether you are exposed for a short or long period of time. If the levels of acrylonitrile are high enough, or if the exposure is for a long enough period of time, acrylonitrile can cause death.
Small children are more likely to be affected than adults.
In several cases, children died following exposures that adults found only mildly irritating. It should be noted that specific levels of acrylonitrile causing death were not reported. Exposure to large amounts of acrylonitrile for a short period of time, as might occur in the case of an industrial accident, results mainly in effects on the nervous system. Symptoms can include headache and nausea. At higher concentrations of acrylonitrile there may be temporary damage to red blood cells and the liver.