Toxicology and the environment - An IUPAC teaching programme for chemists

摘要

Increasingly chemists are faced with legislation requiring assessment of hazard and risk associated with the production,use,and disposal of chemicals.In addition,the general public are concerned about the dangers that they hear may result from the widespread use of chemicals.They look to the chemist for explanations and assume that chemists understand such matters.When they discover that chemists are often ignorant of the potential of chemicals to cause harm,their confidence in the profession is lost and chemophobia may result.In 1993 IUPAC agreed a joint project between the Toxicology Commission and the Committee on Teaching of Chemistry to produce a multi-author book,'Fundamental Toxicology for Chemists'.This book has been published in 1996.A second,expanded edition has been published early in 2006 by the Royal Society of Chemistry.The textbook is associated with an ongoing distance learning programme which is available through the internet and on CD.The distance learning programme currently consists of seven units one of which deals specifically with environmental toxicology.The contents of each unit are explained as each has some input into environmental matters.In addition the programme includes a case study of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and a paper on toxicology and ethics,both of which are presented.Each unit includes assessment exercises,some of which are demonstrated.