Toxicology (from the Ancient Greek words τοξικός toxikos "poisonous" and λόγος logos) is a branch of biology, chemistry, and medicine (more specifically pharmacology) concerned with the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms. A toxicologist is a scientist or medical personal who are expertized in the study of symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of venoms and toxins; specially the poisoning of people. It also include the studies of the harmful effects of chemical, biological and physical agents in biological systems that produced the extent of harm in living organisms.
The relationship between dose and its effects on the body have a high significance in toxicology. The major norm regarding the toxicity of a drug or chemical is the dose, i.e. the amount of exposure to the substance. All substances are toxic under some circumstances. The term LD50 denotes the dose of a toxic substance that kills 50 percent of a test population typically rats or other surrogates when the test proceeds for human toxicity.
The conventional relationship more exposure to the toxic substances shows the equal higher risk has been described in the study of endocrine disruptors. Toxicity is species-specific, lending cross-species analysis problematic. Newer methods has been established to bypass animal-testing.
Factors that influence toxicity: Dosage, Both acute exposures and chronic exposures, Route of exposure, Ingestion, inhalation or skin absorption, Species, Age, Sex, Health, Environment, Individual characteristics.
The impact factor of journal provides quantitative assessment tool for grading, evaluating, sorting and comparing journals of similar kind. It reflects the average number of citations to recent articles published in science and social science journals in a particular year or period, and is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field. It is first devised by Eugene Garfield, the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information. The impact factor of a journal is evaluated by dividing the number of current year citations to the source items published in that journal during the previous two years.
Last date updated on July, 2014
