Modern Poisons A Brief Introduction to Contemporary Toxicology
This book explains basic principles in plain language while illuminating the most important issues in contemporary toxicology. The author begins by exploring age-old precepts of the field such as the dose-response relationship and the concept, first intro
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Modern Poisons a brief introduction to contemporary toxicology
Alan S. Kolok
Washington | Covelo | London
Copyright © 2016 Alan Kolok All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, 2000 M Street NW, Suite 650, Washington, DC 20036 Island Press is a trademark of The Center for Resource Economics. Library of Congress Control Number: 2016933395 Printed on recycled, acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Keywords: Toxins, dose-response relationship, endocrine disruption, pesticides, chemical resistance, epigenetics, chemical regulation, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), Paracelsus, prions.
contents
Preface
ix
Acknowledgments Chapter 1 The Dose Makes the Poison
xiii 1
Chapter 2 The Nature of a Chemical
10
Chapter 3 The Human Animal
18
Chapter 4 Chemical Journeys: Absorption
26
Chapter 5 Bodily Defense
35
Chapter 6 Wider Journeys: Pollution
43
Chapter 7 Traveling Particles
50
Chapter 8 Toxins, Poisons, and Venoms
58
Chapter 9 Metals: Gift and Curse
66
Chapter 10 Combustion
76
Chapter 11 Drugs and the Toxicology of Addiction
85
Chapter 12 70,000 Years of Pesticides
95
Chapter 13 The Origins of Regulation
104
Chapter 14 Low-Dose Chemical Carcinogenesis
113
Chapter 15 POPs and Silent Spring
123
Chapter 16 Toxic Toiletries
131
Chapter 17 Determining Sex: Chemicals and Reproduction
139
Chapter 18 The Earliest Exposure: Transgenerational Toxicology
148
Chapter 19 Natural Toxins Revisited
158
Chapter 20 Chemical Resistance
164
Afterword
175
Toxicology and Beyond
References
179
Index
197
preface
Toxicology is interdisciplinary. Other disciplines, such as anatomy, can be studied more or less in isolation, without much intellectual investment from the other major scientific fields. Students can be educated on the arrangement of bone, muscle, and the internal organs, for example, with very little mention of the underlying chemistry of the bone, or the biomechanics involved in muscular activity. Toxicology, on the other hand, is the study of the adverse effects of noxious chemicals on living organisms, and therefore cannot be encapsulated solely within the fields of biology or chemistry, but rather lives within the intersection of the two disciplines. Toxicology is also an applied science, being responsive to changes in the human environment and to societal needs. At its inception, toxicology was intricately associated with medicine. Physicians first developed the basic principles of toxicology over 500 years ago, for toxic insults were invariably personal and medically debilitating. The adages that “a chemical dose makes the poison” and “a chemical’s nature is revealed through its structure” arose to help understand the mechanisms by which poisons were adversely affecting humans. During the early stages of its evolution as a discipline, toxic
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