What You Should Know About Toxicology

Toxicology is the study of the interaction of chemicals with the living system. Like the name suggests, it

involves the study of symptoms, mechanisms and treatments of individuals who have been exposed to

toxic and poisonous substances. This branch of study of effect of toxins and their subsequent treatment

originated amongst early cave men that discovered poisonous plants and animals and used the poison in

hunting or in warfare. However, it was only in the twentieth century that an independent science of

toxicology emerged. It has various branches like environmental toxicology, flood toxicology and clinical

toxicology.

Toxicology puts a value on the risk involved when certain chemicals react with the body systems and thus

curbs the potential chemical threats that can be found in everyday living. It is a combination of different

fields of sciences like chemistry, biology and statistics that together bring about an understanding of the

potency of a chemical. Thus the scientist, after carrying out exhaustive research on these areas of concern,

finally comes to the conclusion of finding out factors that determine the outcome of an exposure to

certain chemicals under certain circumstances.

Toxicology-Consulting involves the progressive study of measurements of biochemical and functional

changes in the immune system, endocrine system and the neurological system. In toxicological studies,

the researcher studies the threshold of the body that can endure a certain amount of chemical before the

chemical turns out to be toxic or harmful to the body. This is referred to as dosage levels. The dosage level

is determined by the chemical structure, the chemistry and the biochemistry of the chemical in question.

Along with getting to know the mode of action and toxicity brought about a certain chemical substance

the researcher also needs to know the biological processes and cellular processes in the body that the

chemical tends to affect.

Chemical concentration plays an important role in when designing toxicity studies. This may include

individual chemicals or mixtures of the same. This study has been applied widely onto forensic studies. It

is used in the measurement of alcohol, drugs and other poisonous substances in specimens of biological

origin. Interpreting such findings can prove to be important turning points in criminal investigations. It has

proved to be one of the major applications of toxicology due to increase in crime rates and other related

deaths. There are numerous areas of specialty when it comes to forensic toxicology but the most sought

field is postmortem toxicology.

A toxicology test utilizes blood or urine samples to detect the presence of drugs. In certain cases

substances like stomach contents, sweat or saliva may also be checked. Generally, laboratory methods

are better able to detect drugs in urine than in blood. The reliability of toxicology tests provided by

Toxicology-Services depends on the methods used by the laboratory.