HISTORY AND SCOPE OF TOXICOLOGY Some specialty areas of Toxicology:

HISTORY OF TOXICOLOGY 1. Clinical Toxicology: (hospital setting)

I. Early history: Romans, Greeks, Chinese  Deal with emergencies such as overdoses, poisonings, attempted
 Knew of human and animal poisons. suicides.
 Categorized and studied poisons.  Compound identification and quantification.
 Royal "tasters"…  Sign and symptom management.
II. Socrates (470-399 B.C.):  Emergency care--home poisoning.
 Most celebrated poisoning victim.  Poison control.
 Executed by poison hemlock.
 Active principle: coniine. 2. Forensic Toxicology: (Medical Examiners office)
 Medical-legal aspects of poisonings.
III.15th Century Europe: Italians developed po ning into an art form iso  Identification and quantification of poisons.
 poisoning became a normal hazard of life.....  Establish relationship between tissue residual level and probable cause
of death.
1. Venice's "Council of Ten" (City Council)
 Put out poisoning contracts on political enemies. 3. Industrial Toxicology:
 Council transactions: detailed records with name of victim, contractor,  Estimation of worker safety based on 8 hr work day, 40 hr work week....
type and amount of poison given, results…  Engineering of safety measures.
 Air sampling, worker sampling.
2. Borgia: prominent family who practiced "applied toxicology"
 Cesare, Lucretia and others. 4. Environmental Toxicology:
 Killed husbands, wives, lovers, political opponents, churchmen….  Effects of compounds on water, wildlife.
 Movement of chemicals in the environment--soil, air, water.
3. Catherine de Medici (1519-1589)  Residual life of chemicals in the environment.
 Wife of Henry II of France, mother of three French kings, ruler of France.
 Early "experimental toxicologist". 5. Biochemical and MolecularToxicology:
 Poisoned poor and sick street people under guise of "feeding" and  Determining mode of action of chemicals at the molecular level.
assistance".  Effect of chemicals on DNA, cancer genes….
 Killed political enemies for hire....
 Documented signs and symptoms. 6. Product development Toxicology: (Corporate setting)
 Service and preclinical toxicology for product development.
IV. Paracelsus full name: Philipus Aurelius Theophastrus Bombastus von
 Evaluation of full toxic potential of chemicals destined for drug use.
Hohenheim-Paracelsus (1493-1514)
 Establish safe doses for people.
 Instrumental in logical development of toxicology as science.
 Developed concept of "dose".
 Action a result of chemical entity -- toxicon.

V. Orfila (1787-1853) Spaniard--personal physician to Louis XVIII 7. Regulatory Toxicology: (industry and government setting)
 "The Father of Modern Toxicology"  Deciphers and analyzes toxicological data for risk estimation.
 Developed toxicology into a science.  Solvent vapor thresholds in industry.
 Compiled chemical and biological information on most known poisons.  Safe level for human drugs.
 Proposed the necessity of chemical analysis to prove cause-and-effect.
 Safe level of heavy metals in water.
 Safe levels of pesticides.
VI. Mid 1800s:
 Analytical methods developed for As, Hg and miscellaneous alkaloids.

SCOPE OF TOXICOLOGY