Decrease of reduced glutathione (GSH) was induced in isolated rat hepatocytes by incubation with acrolein or acrylonitrile for 120 min or exposure to the products of oxidative thermal degradation of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS), styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN), and high impact polystyrene (SB). The decrease of GSH by acrolein was rapid but the cells soon recovered at acrolein concentrations of 0.025--0.25 mM. 0.5 mM acrolein depleted the cells of GSH and they were uncapable of further GSH synthesis. At concentrations of 0.25--0.5 mM concomitant lipid peroxidation impaired the integrity of the cell membranes. Also acrylonitrile induced a dose dependent GSH decrease at concentrations of 0.05--1 mM. Neither membrane damage nor lipid peroxidation was detected during 120-min incubations at these acrylonitrile concentrations. The thermal degradation products of ABS, SAN and SB caused a decrease of GSH in hepatocytes. The extent of the decrease depended on the degradation temperature and the type of the plastic. The membrane integrity was impaired in the cases where GSH was depleted almost completely; ABS degraded at 350 degrees C and SB at 250 degrees C. The measurements of lipid peroxidation by the thiobarbituric acid and the diene conjugation methods were impossible because the degradation products contained compounds which interfered with these tests.