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EnS 115 Module 1

This module provides an overview of an introductory environmental toxicology course, defining key terms like toxicants, toxins, dose, and dose-response. It discusses the basics of the fields of toxicology and environmental toxicology, including historical examples of toxicological crises. The module aims to help students understand the effects of toxicants in the environment and apply basic environmental science and toxicology concepts.

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May Joy Vasquez
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109 views18 pages

EnS 115 Module 1

This module provides an overview of an introductory environmental toxicology course, defining key terms like toxicants, toxins, dose, and dose-response. It discusses the basics of the fields of toxicology and environmental toxicology, including historical examples of toxicological crises. The module aims to help students understand the effects of toxicants in the environment and apply basic environmental science and toxicology concepts.

Uploaded by

May Joy Vasquez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EnS 115 Introduction to Environmental

Toxicology

Module 1

Instructor: MAY JOY G. VASQUEZ


MODULE OVERVIEW

This chapter summarizes the basics of environmental toxicology, the science of


measuring and using data on adverse effects from the point of view of
environmental management such as legislation, monitoring, risk assessment and risk
reduction.
LEARNING OUTCOME

After successfully completing Module 1, you should be able to:

 Understand the effects of toxicants in the environment;


 Understand and apply basic concepts from Environmental Sciences
 and Environmental Toxicology;
 Collaborate and work in teams;
TOXICOLOGY
A. What is Toxicology?
• the study of poisons/toxins and their effects on organism
B. What are harmful or adverse effects?
Harmful or adverse effects are those that are
damaging to either the survival or normal function of the
individual.
C. What is Toxic?
This term relates to poisonous or deadly effects on
the body by inhalation (breathing), ingestion (eating), or
absorption, or by direct contact with a chemical
TOXICOLOGY
D. What is a Toxicant?
Is any chemical that can injure or kill humans, animals, or plants; a poison.
The term “toxicant” is used when talking about toxic substances that are produced
by or are a by-product of human-made activities. For example, dioxin (2,3-7,8-
tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin {TCDD}), produced as a by-product of certain
chlorinated chemicals, is a toxicant.
E. What is a Toxin?
The term “toxin” usually is used when talking about toxic substances produced
naturally. A toxin is any poisonous substance of microbial (bacteria or other tiny
plants or animals), vegetable, or synthetic chemical origin that reacts with specific
cellular components to kill cells, alter growth or development, or kill the organism.
Toxins vs. Toxicants
• Toxicant - poisonous agent - produces adverse biological effects
e.g. metals, PAHs, PCBs, etc.
• Toxin - toxic substance produced by a living organism
e.g. snake venom, mycotoxin, tetrodotoxin, etc.
History of Toxicology
Father of toxicology - Paracelsus (born 1493/1494)
• Believed that it was not the substance that was toxic but the amount that was toxic
• Paracelsus basic tenant of modern toxicology “All substances are poisons: there is none
that is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy”
• Xenobiotc
-foreign to the body - not naturally produced within an organism
• Anthropogenic
- human-made
- caused or influenced by humans
History of Toxicology • Middle Ages and Renaissance
- Paracelsus
• Early civilizations • need for experimentation
• therapeutic versus toxic properties
- curare • concept of dose
• specificity of chemical effects
- calabar beans: physostigmine
- opium
• Romans
- Mithridates VI (120-63BC) - Lex Cornelia (82BC)
F. What is a dose?
The dose is the actual amount of a chemical that enters the body. The dose received
may be due to either acute (short) or chronic (long-term) exposure.
G. What is dose-response?
Dose-response is a relationship between exposure
and health effect, that can be established by
measuring the response relative to an increasing
dose. This relationship is important in determining
the toxicity of a particular substance (2). It relies on
the concept that a dose, or a time of exposure (to
a chemical, drug, or toxic substance), will cause an
effect (response) on the exposed organism. Usually,
the larger or more intense the dose, the greater the
response, or the effect. This is the meaning behind
the statement “the dose makes the poison.”
Some notable toxicological crises
• Drugs: e.g., thalidomide (Europe)

• Environmental contamination
- methyl mercury in Minimata Bay, Japan
- tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD) in Seveso, Italy
- methyl isocyanate in Bhopal, India

• Food contamination
- carbophenothion in Texas
- mercury in Iraq and Pakistan
ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY
A. Definitions
• Environmental toxicology is the study of the fate and effects of chemicals in the environment
B. Exposure and Effect
• Must have exposure to have an effect
• No exposure =
In order for this to occur, the toxicant must:
1. Be released into the environment
2. Be exposed to the target organism
3. Be taken up by target organism modification?
4. Cause a response in the target organism
ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY
2 Subcategories:
1. Ecotoxicology
- focuses on the effects of environmental
contaminants upon the ecosystems &
constituents (fish, wildlife,..), microbes to top
predators in the food chain
2. Environmental health toxicology
- study of the adverse effects of environmental
chemicals on human health
ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY
C. Classes of Environmental Toxicants

• Radiation - e.g. Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant release


• Inorganic - metals, ammonia
• Organic - dioxins, furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
• Pesticides - insecticides, herbicides, fungicides
• Complex effluents - STP, mine, pulp and paper
D. Historical Examples Mad Hatters

• Chimney sweeps •Hat makers (Hatters) on occasion


would use solutions in hat making
• 18th century
•Solutions contained mercury (Hg)
• Chimney soot was removed by chimney •Hatters worked in poorly ventilated
sweeps rooms and inhaled mercury vapor
•Caused neuropathology in the
• Sweeps had an increase in scrotal cancer hatters (Koertge, 1965) à “Mad as a
à Percival Pott (Legge, 1955) hatter”

• Attributed to the PAHs formed from


incomplete combustion
Historical Need for Ecotoxicology
A.Changes in Human Behavior
• Pre-industrial revolution
- Small, rural-based communities
- Receiving environment able to “cope with” the wastes produced
• Post-industrial revolution
• - Developing countries shifted from rural communities to industrialized
civilization
• - Receiving environment can no longer “cope with” the wastes produced
B. Pollution
• Substance in the environment that produces adverse effects
• Pollutants are not necessarily toxicants - e.g. phosphorous à eutrophication
• But many are à PAHs, PCBs, oil, metals, etc.

C. Paradigm Shift
• Dilution paradigm
- “The solution to pollution is dilution”
• Boomerang paradigm
- “What you throw away can come back and hurt you”
INITIAL ACTIVITY
Play the following video (from 0 up to 5:20 minutes) a documentary video
by Born to be Wild: San Juan River, Manila’s Biologically Dead River.
Link: https://youtu.be/hfaCbe98JpQ
1. After viewing the video, what did you learn about the current status of
human wastes, plastics/microplastics being a Macroproblem in the
Philippines? What is the relationship/connection of this environmental issue
to your subject (Environmental Toxicology)? (Write your answer on your
Activity Notebook.)

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