What Is a Toxic Chemical?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or EPA defines a toxic chemical as any
substance which may be harmful to the environment or hazardous to your health if inhaled,
ingested or absorbed through the skin.
• Many toxic chemicals occur in nature. For example,
plants produce toxic chemicals to protect
themselves from pests. Animals produce toxins for
protection and to capture prey. In other cases, toxic
chemicals are simply a by-product of metabolism.
Some natural elements and minerals are
poisonous. Here are some examples of
natural toxic chemicals:
• Snake venom
• Caffeine in coffee, tea, kola and cocoa
• Petroleum
• Hydrogen sulfide
• Chlorine gas
• Smoke

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What is the toxicity of the chemical?
• Toxicity is a measure of the
poisoning strength of a chemical.
Chemicals with low toxicity require
large doses or amounts to cause
poisoning. Chemicals with high
toxicity only need small doses to
cause poisoning.
• Toxicologists use animal tests and
other methods to determine
whether small or large doses of a
particular chemical cause toxicity.
• To put it another way, all chemicals
have the potential to be poisonous.
It is the amount or dose taken into
the body that determines whether
or not they will cause poisonous
effects. Poisoning, then, is caused
not just by exposure to a particular
chemical, but by exposure to too
much of it.
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What are the routes of entry into the body?

• No chemical can cause poisonous effects without

first coming into contact with the body.
• Inhaling (breathing in) contaminated air is the most
common way that workplace products enter the
body. Some chemicals, when in contact with the
skin, can seep through the skin. Less commonly,
workplace chemicals may be swallowed, for
example from contaminated food or cigarettes. The
eyes may also be a route of entry. Usually, however,
only very small quantities of chemicals in the
workplace enter the body through the mouth or the
eyes.

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Curiosities about chemicals

Between 1930 and 2000 global production of man-

made chemicals increased from 1 million to 400
million tonnes each year.
Up to 300 man-made chemicals have been found in
humans.
Currently only 14% of the chemicals used in the
largest volumes have the minimum amount of data
publicly available to make an initial basic safety
assessment.
Man-made chemicals are in use all around us - from
pesticides to cosmetics and baby bottles to computers
- our 21st century society depends on them.

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Thanks for watching!

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