Scientific Frontiers In Developmental Toxicology And Risk Assessment

Scientific Frontiers in Developmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment reviews advances made during the last 10-15 years in fields such as developmental biology, molecular biology, and genetics. It describes a novel approach for how these advances might be used in combination with existing methodologies to further the understanding of mechanisms of developmental toxicity, to improve the assessment of chemicals for their ability to cause developmental toxicity, and to improve risk assessment for developmental defects. For example, based on the recent advances, even the smallest, simplest laboratory animals such as the fruit fly, roundworm, and zebrafish might be able to serve as developmental toxicological models for human biological systems. Use of such organisms might allow for rapid and inexpensive testing of large numbers of chemicals for their potential to cause developmental toxicity; presently, there are little or no developmental toxicity data available for the majority of natural and manufactured chemicals in use. This new approach to developmental toxicology and risk assessment will require simultaneous research on several fronts by experts from multiple scientific disciplines, including developmental toxicologists, developmental biologists, geneticists, epidemiologists, and biostatisticians.

TECHNICAL

One Health (OH) is the conceptual and operational framework that links environment, food-producing organisms and human health. OH is a developing field, that deals with the multifaceted web of feed-backs and interactions among its components. In order to avoid “drowning into complexity”, priority issues should be identified, either for research and for risk analysis. To date OH approaches have frequently pivoted on infectious agents shared among animals and humans and the related problems, such as antibiotic resistance. Nevertheless, the OH scenarios include, and should increasingly include, environment-and-health problems. Food and environment do interact. Environment influences the living organisms that produce human food and, in the meanwhile, food production outputs influence the environmental quality; as for foods of animal origin, feed materials and practices are driving components of the environment-food interactions. In this book, we aimed at highlighting the importance of environment, chemical exposures and toxicological issues in the field of OH, as well as the need for multidisciplinary integration in order to support OH approaches into diseases prevention and health promotion.

Toxicology – the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms is the cornerstone to all aspects of chemical safety and knowledge of the subject is needed in a wide spectrum of fields from the chemical industry to medicine, emergency services, forensics, and regulatory science. Toxicology involves the study of symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of poisoning ... especially the poisoning of people. The many problems arising from a poor understanding of toxicology and its applications in hazard communication and chemical safety motivated the author’s training courses and webinars, leading to this valuable book. Providing a practical and accessible guide, A Practical Guide to Toxicology and Human Health Risk Assessment enables readers to quickly build up knowledge and understanding of toxicology and its use in hazard identification, which is a fundamental part of chemical risk assessment. The book also covers current toxicological testing strategies and the use of physicochemical test data in hazard identification and exposure assessment. Examples are provided throughout the book to highlight important issues along with a summary of the key points that have been covered in each of the respective chapters. The book concludes with a listing of online resources on toxicology and risk assessment.

The United States Navy has been concerned for some time with protecting its military and civilian personnel from reproductive and developmental hazards in the workplace. As part of its efforts to reduce or eliminate exposure of Naval personnel and their families to reproductive and developmental toxicants, the Navy requested that the National Research Council (NRC) recommend an approach that can be used to evaluate chemicals and physical agents for their potential to cause reproductive and developmental toxicity. The NRC assigned this project to the Committee on Toxicology, which convened the Subcommittee on Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology, to prepare this report. In this report, the subcommittee recommends an approach for evaluating agents for potential reproductive and developmental toxicity and demonstrates how that approach can be used by the Navy. This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC's Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: James Chen (National Center for Toxicological Research), George Daston (Procter and Gamble Company), Jerry Heindel (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences), Grace Lemasters (University of Cincinnati), and John Young (National Center for Toxicological Research).

Advances in molecular biology and toxicology are paving the way for major improvements in the evaluation of the hazards posed by the large number of chemicals found at low levels in the environment. The National Research Council was asked by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review the state of the science and create a far-reaching vision for the future of toxicity testing. The book finds that developing, improving, and validating new laboratory tools based on recent scientific advances could significantly improve our ability to understand the hazards and risks posed by chemicals. This new knowledge would lead to much more informed environmental regulations and dramatically reduce the need for animal testing because the new tests would be based on human cells and cell components. Substantial scientific efforts and resources will be required to leverage these new technologies to realize the vision, but the result will be a more efficient, informative and less costly system for assessing the hazards posed by industrial chemicals and pesticides.