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Principles of Toxicology

updated Dec 29, 2011 by Steven Gilbert

Principles of Toxicology

  • An Introduction to A Small Dose of Toxicology
  • Basic Principles of Toxicology
    • Dose-Response
    • Risk = Hazard X Exposure
    • Individual Sensitivity

Every Day Examples of Toxicology

What Aspect of Toxicology?

Comment

Thalidomide

Developed as a sedative in the early 60’s but found to cause a rare birth defect, phocomelia. In 1962 legislation was passed that new drugs must undergo sufficient animal and human testing prior to approval for use by the FDA.

Hong Kong

a) Many chickens and birds in Hong Kong were killed to stop the spread of a potentially deadly avian virus that could move to humans
b) Why was Hong Kong a British colony? This was in part due to the opium wars, when England and other countries wanted to promote the use of opium to Chinese population. Consider our own current “war on drugs”.

Princess Diana

At the time of death her driver may have had too much alcohol to drink.
Ambassador to Mexico A number of years ago a former governor of Massachusetts (Weild) was denied the opportunity to become the ambassador to Mexico because US Senator Jesse Helm thought he was “soft on drugs”. Yet this senator was from a key tobacco growing state and a major supporter of the tobacco industry (and hence nicotine). Who is soft on drugs?

$276 Billion

Money lost or spent due to the consumption of alcohol or dug abuse, car accidents, lost work etc….

$65 Billion

Money lost or spent due to tobacco related illnesses or disease.

Food

Our food supply is demands on and is contaminated with pesticides. Artificial sweeteners, flavors, and colors are used. Mercury contaminates some fish.

Noise

Loud noise can damage hearing and can cause an even greater effect in combination with certain drugs

Dust

The dust in your home may contain many hazardous contaminants. e.g. lead or pesticides. Many of these can be tracked in the home on shoes or by pets. Removing shoes can reduce contamination in the home.

12,000 Children

Estimated number of children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Coeur d’Alene, Silver Valley, ID

Town contaminated by lead

Solar Radiation (ultraviolet light)

Sunburn, cancer

Arsenic

Found in drinking water, and old smelter and mining sites, cause skin disease and cancer

The Effect of Dose and Body Size on Response

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For a given body size, the larger dose produces a greater effect (left), and for a given exposure, the smaller body size receives a greater effect and larger dose (right).

The Effect of Dose and Body Size on Response

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The horizontal axis indicates the dose in mg/kg of body weight, while the vertical axis is the percent of maximum response. For very low dose there is no or little response. The response increases with the dose until the maximum response is reached and increasing the dose has no additional effect.

Half-life

Click image to view

Principles of Toxicology Chapter

PowerPoint presentation

More Information and References

Teaching resources

  • A Small Dose of Toxicology presentation material is at Toxipedia or A Small Dose of Toxicology Web site contains presentation material related to this book for each chapter.
  • Society of Toxicology (SOT) – K-12 Resources. (accessed: 27 December 2011). U.S. national toxicology organization site has a variety of useful information and links to educational resources on toxicology and related biological sciences.

European, Asian, and International Agencies

  • European Environment Agency. (accessed: 27 December 2011). European Environment Agency has extensive environmental health related information in many languages.
  • England – The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). (accessed: 27 December 2011). NICE was set up as a Special Health Authority for England and Wales and its role is to provide patients, health professionals and the public with authoritative, robust and reliable guidance on current “best practice”.
  • England – Department of Health (DOH). (accessed: 27 December 2011). The aim of DOH is to improve the health and well being of people in England.
  • Chemical Safety Information from Intergovernmental Organizations. (accessed: 27 December 2011). IPCS INCHEM is a means of rapid access to internationally peer reviewed information on chemicals commonly used throughout the world, which may also occur as contaminants in the environment and food. It consolidates information from a number of intergovernmental organizations whose goal it is to assist in the sound management of chemicals.
  • International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). (accessed: 27 December 2011). IARC's mission is to coordinate and conduct research on the causes of human cancer, the mechanisms of carcinogenesis, and to develop scientific strategies for cancer control.
  • World Health Organization (WHO). (accessed: 27 December 2011). The World Health Organization, the United Nations specialized agency for health, was established on 7 April 1948. WHO's objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Information is in English, Spanish, and French.
  • Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety. (accessed: 27 December 2011). Published by the International Labour Organization’s Constitution to promote "the protection of the worker from sickness, disease and injury arising out of employment".
  • Human and Environmental Risk Assessment (HERA). (accessed: 27 December 2011). HERA, on ingredients of household cleaning projects is a voluntary industry program to carry out Human and Environmental Risk Assessments on ingredients of household cleaning products. HERA is a unique European partnership established in 1999 between the makers of household cleaning products (AISE) and the chemical industry (CEFIC) that supplies the raw materials.

North American Agencies

  • Health Canada. (accessed: 27 December 2011). Health Canada provides extensive health related information in English or French.
  • Canadian CHEMINDEX database. (accessed: 27 December 2011). The CHEMINDEX database contains information on over 200,000 chemicals; record contains identification information on a unique chemical substance, including chemical names and synonyms, the CAS registry number, and a list of the CCINFO databases containing information on that substance.
  • Canadian MSDS Database. (accessed: 27 December 2011). Material Safety Data Sheets on over 120,000 compounds from 600 North American manufacturers and suppliers.
  • U.S. National Library of Medicine. (accessed: 27 December 2011). This site provides access to probably the greatest sources of reference material in the world. The Health Information section has specific areas related to Toxicology as well as many searchable databases.
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (accessed: 27 December 2011). Contains a wealth of information on many common environmental pollutants such as lead, mercury and pesticides as well as regulatory information. The site also has a great kids section.
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). (accessed: 27 December 2011). “IRIS is a database of human health effects that may result from exposure to various substances found in the environment.” An excellent souse of information about many compounds – a great starting place.
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program. (accessed: 27 December 2011). “The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a publicly available EPA database that contains information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities reported annually by certain covered industry groups as well as federal facilities.”
  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (accessed: 27 December 2011). All you would ever want to know about the drug approval process as well as basic information on diseases and current event topics.
  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - FDA History. (accessed: 27 December 2011). Site contains an interesting historical perspective on the U.S. FDA.
  • U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP). (accessed: 27 December 2011). NTP was established in 1978 by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to coordinate toxicological testing programs within the Department, strengthen the science base in toxicology; develop and validate improved testing methods; and provide information about potentially toxic chemicals to health regulatory and research agencies, the scientific and medical communities, and the public.

Non-government Organizations

  • Environmental Defense. (accessed: 27 December 2011). “Environmental Defense is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. Among these rights are clean air and water, healthy and nourishing food, and a flourishing ecosystem.”
  • North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). (accessed: 27 December 2011). NAAEE is a network of professionals, students, and volunteers working in the field of environmental education throughout North America and in over 55 countries around the world. Since 1971, the Association has promoted environmental education and supported the work of environmental educators.
  • American Lung Association (ALA). (accessed: 27 December 2011). ALA fights lung disease in all its forms, with special emphasis on asthma, tobacco control and environmental health.
  • Society of Toxicology. (accessed: 27 December 2011). U.S. based international professional organization for toxicologists.
  • Drug Library. ](accessed: 27 December 2011). Offers an incredible history and information on commonly used recreational drugs.

Library References

Introductions to Toxicology and Risk

  • The Dose Makes the Poison: A Plain Language Guide to Toxicology, by Alice Ottoboni, 1991. Van Nos Reinhold, $24.95. (A very good introduction to toxicology.)
  • Beating Murphy’s Law: The Amazing Science of Risk, by Bob Berger. 1994. Dell, $11.95. (A fun look at risk in every day life.)
  • Risk Analysis and Management. By Morgan, M. Granger Scientific American, July 1993 p 32-41. (This is a good short overview of many of the issues in risk analysis.)
  • Basics of Toxicology. By Chris Kent, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1998 p 401. (More detailed over view but still accessible).

Reference Books (lots of good information, but costly)

  • Principles and Methods of Toxicology, (5th Edition), ed A. Wallace Hayes, 2007. Taylor & Francis, London, P. 2304. (An important book on the principles of toxicology with a emphasis on testing and safety assessment in toxicology.)
  • Casarett & Doull’s Toxicology, The Basic Science of Poisons (7th Edition), ed Curtis D. Klaassen, 2007. McGraw-Hill, New York. P. 1280. (One of the classic toxicology textbooks that contains more than anyone wants to know about toxicology.)
  • Goodman and Gilman’s The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (12th Edition), ed. Joel G. Hardman, Lee E. Limbird, Perry B. Molinoff, and Raymond W. Ruddon, 2010, McGraw Hill, New York, p 1808. (A detailed book on the pharmacological (i.e. beneficial) and toxicological (i.e. adverse) effects of drugs. Also considerable basic physiological information.)
  • U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Neurotoxicity: Identifying and Controlling Poisons of the Nervous System, OTA-BA-436 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, April 1990.) (An excellent overview of toxicology with an obvious emphasis on chemical agents that affect the nervous system.)
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