Toxicology Flashcards
(63 cards)
This elucidates the cellular, molecular, and biochemical effects of xenobiotics within the context of a doseresponse relationshipbetween the xenobiotic and the adverse effect.
Mechanistic Toxicology
is the study of the adverse effects of xenobiotics in humans
Toxicology
include chemicals and drugs that are not normally found or produced in the body.
Xenobiotics
This uses the results from animal experiments to predict what level of exposure will cause harm in humans. This process is known as risk assessment.
Descriptive Toxicology
Interpretation of combined data from mechanistic and descriptive studies is used to establish standards that define the level of exposure that will not pose a risk to public health or safety.
Regulatory Toxicology
oversees human safety issues associated with therapeutic drugs, cosmetics, and food additives.
Food and Drug Administration
has regulatory oversight with regard to pesticides, fungicides, rodenticides, and industry-related chemicals that may threaten safe drinking water and clean air.
U.S. Environmental Agency
is responsible for ensuring safe and healthy work environments.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA)
regulates household chemicals
Consumer Product Safety Commission
oversees transporting of chemical hazards.
Department of Transportation
wanted the toxic’ warning symbol to be “memorable but meaningless”.
Charles L. Baldwin
Charles L. Baldwin developed The ‘toxic’ warning symbol in
1966
health engineers in the The ‘toxic’ warning symbol
Charles L. Baldwin of Dow Chemicals
Robert S. Runkle of the National Institutes of Health
study of interrelationships between xenobiotics and disease states
This area emphasizes not only diagnostic testing but also therapeutic intervention
Clinical Toxicology
Is concerned with themedicolegal consequences of exposure to chemicals or drugs. A major focus of this area is establishing and validating the analytic performance of the methods used to generate evidence in legal situations, including the cause of death.
Forensic Toxicology
Includes the evaluation of environmental chemical pollutants and their impact on human health. This is a growing area of concern as we learn more about the mechanisms of action of these chemicals, monitor occupational health, and increase public health biomonitoring efforts nationwide.
Environmental Toxicology
is usually considered a specialty of clinical chemistry
toxicology
are defined as exogenous agents that may have an adverse effect on a living organism. Examples include antibiotics, antidepressants, and environmental exposures of concern such as perfluorinated (non-stick pans, waterproof furniture, etc.) and brominated compounds (insecticides, fumigants, dyes, pool sterilizers, etc.)
Xenobiotics
This term is more often used when describing animal, plant, mineral, or gas poisons. Examples include venom from poisonous snakes, poison hemlock, arsenic, or carbon monoxide poisonings, respectively.
Poisons
are substances that are biologically synthesized either in living cells or in microorganisms. Examples include botulinum toxin produced from the microorganism, Clostridium botulinum, hemotoxinsproduced from venomous snakes, and mycotoxinsproduced from fungus.
Toxins
can become protonated in gastric acid. The result is a nonionized species, which can be absorbed in the stomach.
Weak acids
favor absorption in the intestine, where the pH is largely neutral or slightly alkaline.
Weak bases
have the ability to diffuse across cell membranes and, therefore, can be absorbed anywhere along the gastrointestinal tract.
Hydrophobic substances
cannot passively diffuse across membranes.Other factors can influence absorbance of
Ionized substances
