Toxicology and Risk Assessment

TOXICOLOGY AND RISK ASSESSMENT: A COMPREHENSIVE INTRODUCTION HELMUT GREIM, Institut für Toxikologie und Umwelthygiene, Technische Universität München ROBERT SNYDER, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Toxicology is concerned with the health risks of human exposure to chemicals. It describes the adverse effects of chemicals in a qualitative sense, and with evaluating them quantitatively by determining how much of a chemical is required to produce a given response. Toxicology and Risk Assessment: A Comprehensive Introduction describes the basic concepts of toxicology, and aims to equip the reader with the skills required to evaluate risks at given exposures. Topics covered include: Principles in Toxicology: toxicokinetics including absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion; the mechanisms that lead to cytotoxicity, carcinogenicity and effects on reproduction; and the toxic effects of mixtures of chemicals Organ Toxicology: information on anatomy and physiology of the major organs; why they are specific targets; and the mechanisms of specific chemicals affecting these organs Methods in Toxicology: the commonly used methods used for toxicity testing, both in vivo and in vitro Risk Assessment: the concepts comprising hazard identification, dose-response, and exposure assessment and the different approaches for thresholded and non-thresholded effects. Recent molecular-biological results on cellular responses to genotoxic agents such as DNA-repair, halt of proliferation, and apoptosis that allow assumption of thresholded genotoxic effects are also described Risk Management: US and European regulations for chemicals Toxicity of Chemicals: the toxic mechanisms and effects of major groups of chemicals Toxicology and Risk Assessment is an essential text for scientists in academia, industry and government agencies who want to understand how our bodies respond to toxicants, and the principles used to assess the health risks of specific exposure scenarios.