Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:03:57 EDT
Reply-To: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
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From: ACTSNYC**At_Symbol_Here**CS.COM
Subject: Re: Toxicology Basics

That's really well done if you title it as an explanation of "acute" toxicity.  It only defines chronic toxicity tests as small exposure of three months or more and mentions that benzene causes leukemia without discussing how this happens.

To make the module complete I would add simple clear explanations of carcinogenicity, endocrine disruption, reproductive and developmental effects, birth defects, sensitization and allergy, and various types of chronic organ damage.  These are not all strictly dose dependent, cancer has a latency period with no symptoms at all, and allergy causes some people life-threatening symptoms at incredibly small doses.

Young chemistry students should see how toxicologists at FDA and EPA assess risk from exposure to DNA-damaging carcinogens.  They should know that the curve on that graph always goes to zero since the only dose with no risk is no dose at all.

Chemistry students need a deeper understanding of chronic toxicity to appreciate the fact that over 50 million chemicals have been registered by CAS and only ~900 chemicals worldwide have been studied for cancer.  They should consider that the majority of the chemicals they will use in the course of their careers will not have been assessed for any of these chronic hazards.  What better reason could there be for establishing good hygiene and good laboratory practice?

Monona

In a message dated 9/10/2010 3:58:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time, dakatz45**At_Symbol_Here**MSN.COM writes:



I would like to share some basic information on toxicology I found written by Elizabeth Casarez of the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy.  I have found this to be useful in my non-major class on Consumer Chemistry and I plan to incorporate it into the safety information for my General Chemistry classes.  I hope you find it useful for introducing toxicology basics to appropriate classes.
 
At this link is a PowerPoint presentation on Principles of Toxicology and an accompanying handout in both PDF and Word Format.  http://coep.pharmacy.arizona.edu/curriculum/tox_basics/index.html
 
Best regards to everyone.
 
David
 
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