TOXICOLOGY

Toxicology: Study the adverse effects of toxicants in living organisms, and examine the toxic effects

1.cellular

2.biochemical

3.molecular mechanism of action

4.occurrence

5. risk assessment

• Areas of Toxicology: Three main categories:

1.Descriptive toxicology Direct conduct testing, and provide information for safety evaluation and regulation

⇒e.g., acute oral toxicity test, LD50levels

2.Mechanistic toxicology :Identifying and understanding the mechanisms of toxicants exert toxic effect on living organisms

⇒e.g., organophosphate pesticides inhibit AChE

3.Regulatory toxicology: The responsibility for deciding whether a drug or chemical poses a low risk to be marked

1)Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

⇒Chemicals and other toxicants

2)Department of Health (DOH)

⇒Food and Drugs

Occupational Safety and health Administration (OSHA)

• Four specialized areas of toxicology 1.Forensic toxicology : Forensic toxicology is a hybrid of

analytic chemistry and fundamental toxicology ♣ Concerned with the medico-legal aspects of the

harmful effects of Chemicals on human and animals

♣To aid in establishing the cause of death in a postmortem investigation

2.Clinical toxicology: Clinical toxicology is concerned with disease caused by or uniquely associated with toxic substances

♦Physicians ♦Special training in emergency medicine and poison

management

• 3.Environmental toxicology :Environmental toxicology focuses on the impacts of chemical pollutants in the environment on biological organisms

♠ the effects on human health

• non human organisms, fish, birds and terrestrial animals

• 4. Ecotoxicology : Ecotoxicology is a specialized area within environmental toxicology .The impacts of toxic substances on population dynamics in an ecosystem .The transport, fate, and interactions of chemicals in the environmental and ecotoxicology ./