1. TOXICOLOGY

2. 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

3. • 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)

4. • 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

5. • 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 ./