Toxicology is a scientific

discipline Discipline is the self-control that is gained by requiring that rules or orders be obeyed, and the ability to keep working at something that is difficult. Disciplinarians believe that such self-control is of the utmost importance and enforce a ...

, overlapping with

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

, and

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

, that involves the study of the

adverse effect An adverse effect is an undesired harmful effect resulting from a medication or other intervention, such as surgery. An adverse effect may be termed a "side effect", when judged to be secondary to a main or therapeutic effect. The term compli ...

s of

chemical substance A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be com ...

s on living

organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...

s and the practice of diagnosing and

treating In law and politics, treating is the act of serving food, drink, and other refreshments to influence people for political gain, often shortly before an election. In various countries, treating is considered a form of corruption, and is illegal ...

exposures to

toxin A toxin is a naturally occurring poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919), derived ...

s and

toxicant A toxicant is any toxic substance, whether artificial or naturally occurring. By contrast, a toxin is a poison produced naturally by an organism (e.g. plant, animal, insect, bacterium). The different types of toxicants can be found in the air, so ...

s. The relationship between dose and its effects on the exposed organism is of high significance in toxicology. Factors that influence chemical

toxicity Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacteria, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect o ...

include the dosage, duration of exposure (whether it is acute or chronic), route of exposure, species, age, sex, and environment. Toxicologists are experts on

poison A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...

s and

poisoning Poisoning is the harmful effect which occurs when Toxicity, toxic substances are introduced into the body. The term "poisoning" is a derivative of poison, a term describing any chemical substance that may harm or kill a living organism upon ...

. There is a movement for

evidence-based toxicology The discipline of evidence-based toxicology (EBT) strives to transparently, consistently, and objectively assess available scientific evidence in order to answer questions in toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with ...

as part of the larger movement towards

evidence-based practices Evidence-based practice is the idea that occupational practices ought to be based on scientific evidence. The movement towards evidence-based practices attempts to encourage and, in some instances, require professionals and other decision-makers ...

. Toxicology is currently contributing to the field of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

research, since some toxins can be used as drugs for killing tumor cells. One prime example of this is

ribosome-inactivating protein A ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) is a protein synthesis inhibitor that acts at the eukaryote, eukaryotic ribosome. This protein family describes a large family of such proteins that work by acting as rRNA N-glycosylase (EC 3.2.2.22). They ina ...

s, tested in the treatment of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. The word ''toxicology'' () is a

neoclassical compound Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from classical languages (classical Latin or ancient Greek) roots. Neo-Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial componen ...

from

Neo-Latin Neo-LatinSidwell, Keith ''Classical Latin-Medieval Latin-Neo Latin'' in ; others, throughout. (also known as New Latin and Modern Latin) is the style of written Latin used in original literary, scholarly, and scientific works, first in Italy d ...

, first attested , from the combining forms '' toxico-'' + ''

-logy ''-logy'' is a suffix in the English language, used with words originally adapted from Ancient Greek ending in ('). The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French '' -logie'', which was in turn inherited from the Latin '' -l ...

'', which in turn come from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words τοξικός ''toxikos'', "poisonous", and

λόγος ''Logos'' (, ; ) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric, as well as religion (notably Christianity); among its connotations is that of a rational form of discourse that relies on inductive and deductive reasoning. Arist ...

''logos'', "subject matter").

History

The earliest treatise dedicated to the general study of plant and animal poisons, including their classification, recognition, and the treatment of their effects is the ''Kalpasthāna'', one of the major sections of the

Suśrutasaṃhitā The ''Sushruta Samhita'' (, ) is an ancient Sanskrit text on medicine and one of the most important such treatises on this subject to survive from the ancient world. The ''Compendium of Suśruta'' is one of the foundational texts of Ayurveda ...

, a Sanskrit work composed before ca. 300 CE and perhaps in part as early as the fourth century BCE. The ''Kalpasthāna'' was influential on many later Sanskrit medical works and was translated into Arabic and other languages, influencing South East Asia, the Middle East, Tibet and eventually Europe.

Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides (, ; 40–90 AD), "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of (in the original , , both meaning "On Materia medica, Medical Material") , a 5-volume Greek encyclopedic phar ...

, a Greek physician in the court of the Roman emperor

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...

, made an early attempt to classify plants according to their toxic and therapeutic effect. A work attributed to the 10th century author

Ibn Wahshiyya (), died , was a Nabataean (Aramaic-speaking, rural Iraqi) agriculturalist, toxicologist, and alchemist born in Qussīn, near Kufa in Iraq. He is the author of the '' Nabataean Agriculture'' (), an influential Arabic work on agriculture, ast ...

called the ''Book on Poisons'' describes various toxic substances and poisonous recipes that can be made using

magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...

. A 14th century

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

poetic work attributed to the Jain prince Mangarasa, ''Khagendra Mani Darpana'', describes several poisonous plants. Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila

The 16th-century Swiss physician

Paracelsus Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. H ...

is considered "the father" of modern toxicology, based on his rigorous (for the time) approach to understanding the effects of substances on the body. He is credited with the classic toxicology maxim, "''Alle Dinge sind Gift und nichts ist ohne Gift; allein die Dosis macht, dass ein Ding kein Gift ist.''" which translates as, "All things are poisonous and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not poisonous." This is often condensed to: "

The dose makes the poison "The dose makes the poison" ( 'only the dose makes the poison') is an adage intended to indicate a basic principle of toxicology. It is credited to Swiss physician Paracelsus who expressed the following classic toxicology maxim: This is often ...

" or in Latin "Sola dosis facit venenum". Mathieu Orfila is also considered the modern father of toxicology, having given the subject its first formal treatment in 1813 in his ''Traité des poisons'', also called ''Toxicologie générale''. In 1850,

Jean Stas Jean Servais Stas (21 August 1813 – 13 December 1891) was a Belgian analytical chemist who accurately measured the atomic weight of carbon. Life and work Stas was born in Leuven and trained initially as a physician. He later switched to che ...

became the first person to successfully isolate plant poisons from human tissue. This allowed him to identify the use of

nicotine Nicotine is a natural product, naturally produced alkaloid in the nightshade family of plants (most predominantly in tobacco and ''Duboisia hopwoodii'') and is widely used recreational drug use, recreationally as a stimulant and anxiolytic. As ...

as a poison in the Bocarmé murder case, providing the evidence needed to convict the Belgian Count Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé of killing his brother-in-law.

Basic principles

The goal of

assessment is to identify

adverse effects An adverse effect is an undesired harmful effect resulting from a medication or other intervention, such as surgery. An adverse effect may be termed a "side effect", when judged to be secondary to a main or therapeutic effect. The term complic ...

of a substance. Adverse effects depend on two main factors: i) routes of exposure (oral, inhalation, or dermal) and ii) dose (duration and concentration of exposure). To explore dose, substances are tested in both acute and chronic models. Generally, different sets of experiments are conducted to determine whether a substance causes cancer and to examine other forms of toxicity. Factors that influence chemical toxicity: * Dosage ** Both large single exposures (acute) and continuous small exposures (chronic) are studied. * Route of exposure ** Ingestion, inhalation or skin absorption * Other factors ** Species ** Age ** Sex ** Health ** Environment ** Individual characteristics The discipline of

strives to transparently, consistently, and objectively assess available scientific evidence in order to answer questions in toxicology, the study of the adverse effects of chemical, physical, or biological agents on living organisms and the environment, including the prevention and amelioration of such effects. Evidence-based toxicology has the potential to address concerns in the toxicological community about the limitations of current approaches to assessing the state of the science. These include concerns related to transparency in decision-making, synthesis of different types of evidence, and the assessment of bias and credibility. Evidence-based toxicology has its roots in the larger movement towards

Testing methods

Toxicity experiments may be conducted ''

in vivo Studies that are ''in vivo'' (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, an ...

'' (using the whole animal) or ''

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning ''in glass'', or ''in the glass'') Research, studies are performed with Cell (biology), cells or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in ...

'' (testing on isolated cells or tissues), or ''

in silico In biology and other experimental sciences, an ''in silico'' experiment is one performed on a computer or via computer simulation software. The phrase is pseudo-Latin for 'in silicon' (correct ), referring to silicon in computer chips. It was c ...

'' (in a computer simulation).

''In vivo'' model organism

The classic experimental tool of toxicology is testing on non-human animals. Examples of model organisms are ''

Galleria mellonella ''Galleria mellonella'', the greater wax moth or honeycomb moth, is a moth of the family Pyralidae. ''G. mellonella'' is found throughout the world. It is one of two species of wax moths, with the other being the lesser wax moth. ''G. mellonella' ...

,'' which can replace small mammals,

Zebrafish The zebrafish (''Danio rerio'') is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Danionidae of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (an ...

(''Danio rerio''), which allow for the study of toxicology in a lower order vertebrate ''

'' and ''

Caenorhabditis elegans ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a Hybrid word, blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''r ...

''. As of 2014, such

animal testing Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and ''in vivo'' testing, is the use of animals, as model organisms, in experiments that seek answers to scientific and medical questions. This approach can be contrasted ...

provides information that is not available by other means about how substances function in a living organism. The use of non-human animals for toxicology testing is opposed by some organisations for reasons of animal welfare, and it has been restricted or banned under some circumstances in certain regions, such as the testing of cosmetics in the European Union.

''In vitro'' methods

While testing in animal models remains as a method of estimating human effects, there are both ethical and technical concerns with animal testing. Since the late 1950s, the field of toxicology has sought to reduce or eliminate animal testing under the rubric of " Three Rs" – reduce the number of experiments with animals to the minimum necessary; refine experiments to cause less suffering, and replace ''in vivo'' experiments with other types, or use more simple forms of life when possible. The historical development of alternative testing methods in toxicology has been published by Balls. Computer modeling is an example of an alternative in vitro toxicology testing method; using computer models of chemicals and proteins, structure-activity relationships can be determined, and chemical structures that are likely to bind to, and interfere with, proteins with essential functions, can be identified. This work requires expert knowledge in molecular modeling and statistics together with expert judgment in chemistry, biology and toxicology. In 2007 the American

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

published a report called "Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy" which opened with a statement: "Change often involves a pivotal event that builds on previous history and opens the door to a new era. Pivotal events in science include the discovery of penicillin, the elucidation of the DNA double helix, and the development of computers. ... Toxicity testing is approaching such a scientific pivot point. It is poised to take advantage of the revolutions in biology and biotechnology. Advances in toxicogenomics, bioinformatics, systems biology, epigenetics, and computational toxicology could transform toxicity testing from a system based on whole-animal testing to one founded primarily on in vitro methods that evaluate changes in biologic processes using cells, cell lines, or cellular components, preferably of human origin." As of 2014 that vision was still unrealized. The

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...

studied 1,065 chemical and drug substances in their ToxCast program (part of the CompTox Chemicals Dashboard) using ''in silica'' modelling and a human

pluripotent Cell potency is a cell's ability to differentiate into other cell types. The more cell types a cell can differentiate into, the greater its potency. Potency is also described as the gene activation potential within a cell, which like a continuum ...

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

-based assay to predict ''

'' developmental intoxicants based on changes in cellular

metabolism Metabolism (, from ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes; the co ...

following chemical exposure. Major findings from the analysis of this ToxCast_STM dataset published in 2020 include: (1) 19% of 1065 chemicals yielded a prediction of

developmental toxicity Developmental toxicity is any developmental malformation that is caused by the toxicity of a chemical or pathogen. It is the structural or functional alteration, reversible or irreversible, which interferes with homeostasis, Auxology, normal growth, ...

, (2) assay performance reached 79%–82% accuracy with high specificity (> 84%) but modest sensitivity (< 67%) when compared with ''in vivo'' animal models of human prenatal developmental toxicity, (3) sensitivity improved as more stringent weights of evidence requirements were applied to the animal studies, and (4) statistical analysis of the most potent chemical hits on specific biochemical targets in ToxCast revealed positive and negative associations with the STM response, providing insights into the mechanistic underpinnings of the targeted endpoint and its biological domain. In some cases shifts away from animal studies have been mandated by law or regulation; the European Union (EU) prohibited use of animal testing for cosmetics in 2013.

Dose response complexities

Most chemicals display a classic dose response curve – at a low dose (below a threshold), no effect is observed. Some show a phenomenon known as sufficient challenge – a small exposure produces animals that "grow more rapidly, have better general appearance and coat quality, have fewer tumors, and live longer than the control animals". A few chemicals have no well-defined safe level of exposure. These are treated with special care. Some chemicals are subject to bioaccumulation as they are stored in rather than being excreted from the body; these also receive special consideration. Several measures are commonly used to describe toxic dosages according to the degree of effect on an organism or a population, and some are specifically defined by various laws or organizational usage. These include: * LD50 or LD₅₀ =

Median lethal dose In toxicology, the median lethal dose, LD50 (abbreviation for " lethal dose, 50%"), LC50 (lethal concentration, 50%) or LCt50 is a toxic unit that measures the lethal dose of a given substance. The value of LD50 for a substance is the dose re ...

, a dose that will kill 50% of an exposed population * NOEL = No-Observed-Effect-Level, the highest dose known to show no effect * NOAEL = No-Observed-Adverse-Effect-Level, the highest dose known to show no adverse effects * PEL = Permissible Exposure Limit, the highest concentration permitted under US

OSHA The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA; ) is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. The United States Congress established ...

regulations * STEL = Short-Term Exposure Limit, the highest concentration permitted for short periods of time, in general 15–30 minutes * TWA = Time-Weighted Average, the average amount of an agent's concentration over a specified period of time, usually 8 hours * TTC = The Threshold of Toxicological Concern concept has been applied to low-level contaminants, such as the constituents of

tobacco smoke Tobacco smoke is a sooty aerosol produced by the incomplete combustion of tobacco during the smoking of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Temperatures in burning cigarettes range from about 400 °C between puffs to about 900 °C ...

Types

Medical toxicology Medical toxicology is a subspecialty of medicine focusing on toxicology and providing the diagnosis, management, and prevention of poisoning and other adverse effects due to medications, occupational and environmental toxicants, and biological ...

is the discipline that requires

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

status (MD or DO degree plus specialty education and experience).

Clinical toxicology ''Clinical Toxicology'' (until 2005, ''Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal of clinical toxicology. It is published by Taylor and Francis and is the official journal of the American Academy of Clinical ...

is the discipline that can be practiced not only by physicians but also other

health professional A health professional, healthcare professional (HCP), or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated as HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a Nursing, nur ...

s with a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in clinical toxicology: physician extenders (

physician assistant A physician assistant or physician associate (PA) is a type of non-physician practitioner. While these job titles are used internationally, there is significant variation in training and scope of practice from country to country, and sometimes be ...

nurse practitioner A nurse practitioner (NP) is an advanced practice registered nurse and a type of mid-level practitioner. NPs are trained to assess patient needs, order and interpret diagnostic and laboratory tests, diagnose disease, prescribe medications an ...

s),

nurses Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...

s, and allied health professionals.

Forensic toxicology Forensic toxicology is a multidisciplinary field that combines the principles of toxicology with expertise in disciplines such as analytical chemistry, pharmacology and clinical chemistry to aid medical or legal investigation of death, poisoning, a ...

is the discipline that makes use of toxicology and other disciplines such as

analytical chemistry Analytical skill, Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to Separation process, separate, identify, and Quantification (science), quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute t ...

and clinical chemistry to aid medical or legal investigation of death, poisoning, and drug use. The primary concern for forensic toxicology is not the legal outcome of the toxicological investigation or the technology utilized, but rather the obtainment and interpretation of results. Computational toxicology is a discipline that develops

mathematical Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and computer-based models to better understand and predict adverse health effects caused by chemicals, such as environmental pollutants and pharmaceuticals. Within the ''Toxicology in the 21st Century'' project, the best predictive models were identified to be

Deep Neural Networks Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural networks to perform tasks such as classification, regression, and representation learning. The field takes inspiration from biological neuroscience a ...

Random Forest Random forests or random decision forests is an ensemble learning method for statistical classification, classification, regression analysis, regression and other tasks that works by creating a multitude of decision tree learning, decision trees ...

, and

Support Vector Machines In machine learning, support vector machines (SVMs, also support vector networks) are supervised max-margin models with associated learning algorithms that analyze data for classification and regression analysis. Developed at AT&T Bell Laborato ...

, which can reach the performance of

experiments.

Occupational toxicology Occupational toxicology is the application of toxicology to chemical hazards in the workplace. It focuses on substances and conditions that people may be exposed to in workplaces, including inhalation and dermal exposures, which are most prevale ...

is the application of toxicology to

chemical hazard Chemical hazards are Hazard, hazards present in Dangerous goods, hazardous chemicals and hazardous materials. Exposure to certain chemicals can cause Acute health hazard, acute or long-term adverse health effects. Chemical hazards are usually cl ...

s in the workplace.

Toxicology as a profession

A toxicologist is a scientist or medical personnel who specializes in the study of chemicals to determine if they are harmful to living organisms. Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening website, ''Toxicologist Overview'', retrieved 20 February 2025
/ref> They may analyze symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of

venom Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

s and

s; especially the

ing of people. There are several types of toxicologist including medical, academic and non-profit.

Requirements

To work as a toxicologist one should obtain a degree in toxicology or a related degree like

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

. Bachelor's degree programs in toxicology cover the chemical makeup of toxins and their effects on biochemistry, physiology and ecology. After introductory life science courses are complete, students typically enroll in labs and apply toxicology principles to research and other studies. Advanced students delve into specific sectors, like the pharmaceutical industry or law enforcement, which apply methods of toxicology in their work. The

Society of Toxicology The Society of Toxicology (SOT) is a learned society (professional association) based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of toxicology. Goals The SOT is committed to creating a safer and healthier world by advan ...

(SOT) recommends that undergraduates in postsecondary schools that do not offer a bachelor's degree in toxicology consider attaining a degree in biology or chemistry. Additionally, the SOT advises aspiring toxicologists to take statistics and mathematics courses, as well as gain laboratory experience through lab courses, student research projects and internships. In the USA, Medical Toxicologists complete residency training such as in Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics or Internal Medicine, followed by fellowship in Medical Toxicology and eventual certification by the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT).

Duties

Toxicologists perform many different duties including research in the academic, nonprofit and industrial fields, product safety evaluation, consulting, public service and legal regulation. In order to research and assess the effects of chemicals, toxicologists perform carefully designed studies and experiments. These experiments help identify the specific amount of a chemical that may cause harm and potential risks of being near or using products that contain certain chemicals. Research projects may range from assessing the effects of toxic pollutants on the environment to evaluating how the human immune system responds to chemical compounds within pharmaceutical drugs. While the basic duties of toxicologists are to determine the effects of chemicals on organisms and their surroundings, specific job duties may vary based on industry and employment. For example, forensic toxicologists may look for toxic substances in a crime scene, whereas aquatic toxicologists may analyze the toxicity level of water bodies.

Compensation

The salary for jobs in toxicology is dependent on several factors, including level of schooling, specialization, experience. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) noted that jobs for biological scientists, which generally include toxicologists, were expected to increase by 21% between 2008 and 2018; the BLS noted that this increase could be due to research and development growth in biotechnology, as well as budget increases for basic and medical research in biological science.

References

External links

Society of Toxicology
{{Authority control

History

Basic principles

Testing methods

''In vivo'' model organism

''In vitro'' methods

Dose response complexities

Types

Toxicology as a profession

Requirements

Duties

Compensation

See also

References

Further reading

External links