Current Perspectives in Toxicology

Toxicology is a scientific discipline of growing importance, in a world which is ever more conscious of the risk of contaminating the environment and its lifeforms.

Toxicology is also a dynamic science, forever adding to its understanding and techniques, and exponents will find much of interest in the issues raised in this book. "Current Perspectives in Toxicology" covers some of the more important, developing issues in the subject, such as the use of animals in the testing process.

Two chapters are devoted to this issue. One looks at the progress which has been made in deriving alternative non-animal tests and the problems associated with their acceptance, while the second concentrates on animal welfare legislation in the UK, the aim of which is to ensure that all animals used in experiments are treated and housed in a fitting manner.

A constant theme throughout this book is the assessment of risk.

This is considered for pesticides where safety factors need to be calculated, as well as reproductive and tumorigenicity studies.

A major issue for toxicologists in commercial organizations is the regulatory framework through which they must work to get their products approved. The book looks at several aspects of this issue, to give a picture of some of the changes that have taken place.