TOXICOLOGY | PRELIM | TOPIC 1

INTRODUCTION TO BASIC TOXICOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES • Addicve effect- when the total pharmacological ac5on of two or more chemicals
TOPICS
taken together is equivalent to the summa5on of their individual pharmacological
• Define toxicology
• Discuss the history of toxicology ac5on.
• Classifica5on/areas of Toxicology
• Potencacon effect - the capacity of a chemical to increase the effect of another
• Defini5on of Terms
chemical without having the effect
• Antagonism -is the phenomenon of opposing ac5ons of two chemicals on the
TOXICOLOGY: AN OVERVIEW
same system
Toxicon- poisonous substance into which arrow heads were dipped
Logos- study
CLASSIFICATION
- science of poison
- qualita5ve and quan5ta5ve study of the adverse or toxic effect of chemicals and (RESEARCH METHODOLOGY)
other anthropogenic materials or xenobio5cs on organisms • Descripcve toxicology- deals with toxicity tests on chemicals exposed to human
- deals with food and cosme5cs for public consump5on both in alive or dead
beings and environment as a whole.
vic5ms
- assimilates knowledge and techniques from biochemistry, biology, chemistry, • Mechaniscc toxicology- deals with the mechanism of toxic effects of chemicals
gene5cs, mathema5cs, medicine, pharmacology, physiology, and physics. on living organisms.
- applies safety evolu5on and risk assessment to the discipline.
• Mechaniscc toxicology- deals with the mechanism of toxic effects of chemicals
on living organisms.
HISTORY OF TOXICOLOGY
• Prediccve toxicology- studies about the poten5al and actual risks of chemicals
ANTIQUITY /drugs.
• 1500 BC- Ebers Papyrus (contains informa5on to may recognized poison)

• 1400 BC- Book of Job (Job 6:4- speaks about poison arrows)
SPECIFIC SOCIO-MEDICAL ISSUES
• 400 BC- Hippocrates (added a number of poisons and clinical toxicology principles • Occupaconal toxicology- deals with chemical found in the workplace.
pertaining to bioavailability of therapy and overdosage) • Environmental toxicology- deals with the poten5ally deleterious impact of

• 370-286 BC- Theophrastus (De Historia Plantarum) chemicals, present as pollutants of the environment, to living organisms.
• Clinical toxicology- deals with diagnosis and treatment of the normal diseases or
• 50 AD- Dioscorides (De Materia Medica)
effects caused by toxic substances of exogenous origin.
• 82 BC Lex Cornelia (first law against poisoning • Forensic toxicology- it deals with the medical and legal aspects of the harmful
effects of chemicals on man, o^en in post mortem material.
MIDDLE AGES

• 1135-1204 AD- Maimonides (wrote about poisons and their an5dote)

ORGAN/SYSTEM EFFECT
• Treatment of poisonings from insects, snakes and mad dogs
• Cardiovascular toxicology
• Book Poisons and their An5dotes (1198) • Renal toxicology

• Early Renaissance: Catherine de Medici: tested onset of ac5on and potency • Central nervous system toxicology
• Gastrointescnal toxicology

RENAISSANCE • Respiratory toxicology

• 1493 AD- Paracelsus (“All substances are poisons; there is none that is not a
poison. The right dose differen5ates a poison from a remedy” )

• 1700 AD- Bernardino Ramazzini (Discourse on the Diseases of Workers

• 1775 AD- Percival Po]s (recognized the role of soot in scrotal cancer among
chimney sweeps)

AGE OF ENLIGHTMENT
• 1787-1853 AD-Orfila (Spanish physician who contributed to forensic toxicology
by devising means of detec5ng poisonous substances)

THE 20TH CENTURY

• toxicology has now become much more than the use of poisons. There are
marked improvements in toxicological diagnosis and management.

TERMS TO REMEMBER!

• Toxin- a poison of natural origin

• Poison (Toxicant) - a chemical that may harm or kill an organism
• Toxicity – is a qualita5ve term that refers to the ability of a chemical agent to
cause injury
• Hazard – is the likelihood that injury will occur in a given situa5on or se\ng
• Risk – the expected frequency of the occurrence of an undesirable effect arising
from exposure to a chemical or physical agent.
• Acute exposure- a single exposure or mul5ple exposures occurring over 1 or 2
days.
• Chronic exposure- mul5ple exposures con5nuing over a longer period of 5me
• Synergism-when the effect of two chemicals is greater than the effect of
individual chemicals