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Environmental Science

This guide is to assist you in researching topics related to environmental sciences including organic chemistry, ecology and toxicology, water and wastewater chemistry, and microbiology.

Environmental Toxicology

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Environmental Toxicology

Everything is poison, there is poison in everything. Only the dose makes a thing not a poison.
~ Paracelsus, “the father of toxicology”, 1493-1541

How can we determine the effects that a substance has on living things? Will it cause someone to develop a rash, or affect their nervous system, or injure their lungs, or have no effect at all? Can someone die from it? How much of it is needed to cause an effect, and over what time period? Will it work that way for everyone who is exposed, or will some have more intense reactions? Or less intense?

Toxicology is the study of the effects of toxic substances on living things. In this unit, we will discuss ideas of model organisms, acute vs chronic, dose-response relationship, LD50, and ADI and RfD. We will also look at several common environmental contaminants. (J. Mitchell)

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