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Larry Johnson
Partnership for Environmental Education and Rural health (PEER) Texas A & M University
Toxicology
What is toxicology? The study of the effects of poisons. Poisonous substances are produced by plants, animals, or bacteria. Phytotoxins Zootoxins Bacteriotoxins
Toxicant - the specific poisonous chemical. Xenobiotic - man-made substance and/or produced by but not normally found in the body.
Introduction
Toxicology is arguably the oldest scientific discipline, as the earliest humans had to recognize which plants were safe to eat.
Most exposure of humans to chemicals is via naturally occurring compounds consumed from food plants. Humans are exposed to chemicals both inadvertently and deliberately.
You Know ?
92% of all poisonings happen at home. The household products implicated in most poisonings are: cleaning solutions, fuels, medicines, and other materials such as glue and cosmetics. Certain animals secrete a xenobiotic poison called venom, usually injected with a bite or a sting, and others animals harbor infectious bacteria. Some household plants are poisonous to humans and animals.
History
2700 B.C. - Chinese journals: plant and fish poisons
1900-1200 B.C. - Egyptian documents that had directions for collection, preparation, and administration of more than 800 medicinal and poisonous recipes. 800 B.C. - India - Hindu medicine includes notes on poisons and antidotes. 50-100 A.D. - Greek physicians classified over 600 plant, animal, and mineral poisons.
History
50- 400 A.D. - Romans used poisons for executions and assassinations. The philosopher, Socrates, was executed using hemlock for teaching radical ideas to youths. Avicenna (A.D. 980-1036) Islamic authority on poisons and antidotes. 1200 A.D. - Spanish rabbi Maimonides writes first-aid book for poisonings, Poisons and Their Antidotes
History
Swiss physician Paracelsus (14931541) credited with being the father of modern toxicology. All substances are poisons: there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison from a remedy.
Highly toxic chemicals can be life saving when given in appropriate doses. (Poisons are not harmful at a sufficiently low dose).
Lethal Doses
Approximate Lethal Doses of Common Chemicals (Calculated for a 160 lb. human from data on rats) Chemical Lethal Dose
Sugar (sucrose)
Alcohol (ethyl alcohol) Salt (sodium chloride) Herbicide (2, 4-D) Arsenic (arsenic acid) Nicotine Food poison (botulism)
3 quarts
3 quarts 1 quart one half cup 1-2 teaspoons one half teaspoon microscopic
Source: Marczewski, A.E., and Kamrin, M. Toxicology for the citizen, Retrieved August 17, 2000 from the World Wide Web: www.iet.msu.edu/toxconcepts/toxconcepts.htm.
History
Italian physician Ramazzini (1713) published De Morbis Artificum (Diseases of Workers) describing "asthma" in bakers, miners, farmers, gilders, tinsmiths, glass-workers, tanners, millers, grain-sifters, stonecutters, ragmen, runners, riders, porters, and professors. Ramazzini outlined health hazards of the dusts, fumes, or gases that such workers inhaled. The bakers and horse riders described by Ramazzini would today probably be diagnosed as suffering from allergen-induced asthma. The lung diseases suffered by most of the other workers would now be classified as "pneumoconiosis," a group of dust-related chronic diseases.
History
History
20th Century Paul Ehrlich developed staining procedures to observe cell and tissues and pioneered the understanding of how toxicants influence living organisms.
History
20th Century
Rachel Carson - alarmed public about dangers of pesticides in the environment.
Paracelsus - Miners Disease (1533) Hill & Pott (1761 &1775) Radium dial painters, aniline dye workers (1900) Shoe salesmen (1950s) Industrial chemical workers (1940-present)
- Pott (1775) linked scrotal cancer and soot (benzo(a)pyrene) in chimney sweeps.
Modern Toxicology
1961 - Society of Toxicology
1970s - EPA, FDA, and NIOSH
Toxicology Terms
Toxicity - The adverse effects that a chemical may produce.
Toxicology Terms
Exposure Contact providing opportunity of obtaining a poisonous dose.
Response
Agent A Agent B
Dose
The magnitude of risk is proportional to both the potency of the chemical and the extent of exposure.
The dose makes the poison (amount of chemical at the target site determines toxicity).
Exposure Concepts
Different toxic responses may arise from different: Routes of exposure.
Frequencies of exposure. Duration of exposure (acute vs. chronic).
Inhalation (air)
Exposure Concepts
Exposure to chemicals may come from many sources: Environmental Occupational Therapeutic Dietary Accidental Deliberate
Introduction to Xenobiotics
*Recall: Foreign chemicals are synthesized within the body are termed xenobiotics (Gr.Xenos meaning strange)*
Xenobiotics may be naturally occurring chemicals produced by plants, microorganisms, or animals (including humans). Xenobiotics may also be synthetic chemicals produced by humans. Poisons are xenobiotics, but not all xenobiotics are poisonous.
Xenobiotics at Work
TOXICOKINETICS
Xenobiotic
Excretion
Metabolism
Phase I (oxidative)
Bioactivation Detoxification
Metabolites
Phase II (synthetic)
Metabolites
size ionization water solubility Increase excretability
polarity functionality
Detoxification
Mutagenesis - UV light
Carcinogenesis - benzene, asbestos Teratogenesis - thalidomide
Mechanistic Toxicology
How do chemicals cause their toxic effects?
Descriptive toxicologists evaluate the toxicity of drugs, foods, and other products. They often perform experiments in a pharmaceutical or academic setting.
Clinical toxicologists usually are physicians or veterinarians interested in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of poisoning cases. They have specialized training in emergency medicine and poison management.
Regulatory Toxicology
Use data from descriptive and mechanistic toxicology to perform risk assessments.
Concerned with meeting requirements of regulatory agencies.
Industry/government interactions.
Review
Toxicology is the science that studies the harmful effects of overexposure to drugs, environmental contaminants, and naturally occurring substances found in food, water, air, and soil. Main objectives are to establish safe doses and determine mechanisms of biologic action of chemical substances.
A career in toxicology involves evaluating the harmful effects and mechanisms of action of chemicals in people, other animals, and all other living things in the environment. This work may be carried out in government, private industry and consulting firms, or universities and other research settings.
Toxicologists routinely use many sophisticated tools to determine how chemicals are harmful. (e.g.) computer simulations, computer chips, molecular biology, cultured cells, and genetically-engineered laboratory animals .
Animals in Research
Virtually every medical achievement of the last century has depended directly or indirectly on research in animals.
U.S. Public Health Service
Summary
Toxicology is a fascinating science that makes biology and chemistry interesting and relevant. Understanding HOW (i.e. mechanism) something produces a toxic effect can lead to new ways of preventing or treating chemically-related diseases. Animal use in research is essential for medical progress. Many diseases are the result of an interaction between our genetics (individual variability) and chemicals in our environment. Toxicology provides an interesting and exciting way to apply science to important problems of social, environmental, and public health significance.
Hook
The science of toxicology provides a fantastic pedagogical opportunity to do true interdisciplinary teaching, to make relevant many of the exciting biological discoveries that occur everyday. Whether it is exploring the wonders of the biology of DNA and heredity, or the more mundane aspects of acid-base chemistry, or the ethical, legal, and social implications of genetic testing for common diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer's -
Hook
or the global ecological implications of species extinction; or social risks and benefits of genetically modified foods or diagnosing the cause of the Mad Hatters strange behavior in Lewis Carols Alice in Wonderland (mercury poisoning)or the fall of the Roman Empire (lead poisoning), toxicology and environmental health science provide an interesting hook to make the subject matter what ever it may be interesting and relevant to your students.
Your Role
NIEHS, SOT, and PEER feels the responsibility to help educate the next generation of citizens to better understand the world around them, and especially to understand how chemicals man-made or natural present both risks and benefits to society. Of course, everything we eat, drink, breathe, touch, or use is made of chemicals, so the task is LARGE! We hope to make the science of toxicology less obscure to the public.
Your Role
Risk is a part of everyday life, and ones decisions as to the acceptability of a particular risk is influenced by knowledge and experience. While we cant do much about the experience part, we can try to increase the publics knowledge about the risks and benefits of all things chemical. You play a critical role in this effort, and we cant do it without YOU.
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Partnership for Environmental Education and Rural Health College of Education, Texas A&M University