Occupational toxicology

Occupational toxicology or Industrial toxicology is the application of the principles and methodology of toxicology to understanding and managing chemical and biological hazards encountered at work. The objective of the occupational toxicologist is to prevent adverse health effects in workers that arise from exposures in their work environment.

The science of toxicology has many applications. One of these, relates to exposure of people to noxious or hazardous agents during the course of their work.

Field of occupational toxicology is the study of the adverse effects of agents that may be encountered by workers during the course of their employment.

The work environment has played a significant role in the occurrence of adverse human health effects due to chemical and biological hazards for centuries. Occupational health specialists, including toxicologists, rely upon human and animal data to determine safe exposure levels. If effects observed in workers can be reproduced in a laboratory animal, it becomes possible to investigate the mechanisms that might reasonably be expected to produce such effects. On the other hand, shedding light on the mechanism by which a designated effect is produced in a test animal species may make it easier to find ways to prevent such effects from occurring in humans. Such an understanding may also help to identify subtle or delayed effects that have not been observed in workers, but to which health professionals should be alerted.

Occupational exposures involve situations ranging، for example from a secretary using typewriter correction fluid to the loading and off-loading of tanker trucks with thousands of gallons of gasoline.

Early writings by Ulrich Ellenbog (1435–1499), Agricola (1494–1555), and Paracelsus (1492–1541) revealed the toxic nature of exposures in mining, smelting, and metallurgy. A systematic treatise by Ramazzini (1633–1714) described the hazards as they applied to miners, chemists, metal workers, tanners, pharmacists, grain sifters, stonecutters, sewage workers, and even corpse bearers.

The measurement of a chemical, its metabolite, or a biochemical effect in a biologic specimen for the purpose of assessing exposure. Biologic monitoring is an important tool to identify the nature and amount of chemical exposures in occupational and environmental situations.

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