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Vol.
25 No. 5
September-October 2003
Fundamental
Toxicology for Chemists
Chemists
are increasingly faced with questions about the safety of
substances in common use, ranging from pesticides to fire
retardants. In response to this trend, the former IUPAC Committee
on the Teaching of Chemistry and the IUPAC Commission on Toxicology
initiated a series of projects to introduce toxicology into
chemistry courses. The first project was the preparation of
a glossary of terms in toxicology, which was followed by the
creation of a textbook, Fundamental Toxicology for Chemists,
and an accompanying curriculum for university-level chemistry
courses. A third project was the creation of a series of presentations,
which are freely available on the IUPAC Web site. These presentations
include self-assessment questions and can be used by motivated
students for self-education, although they were originally
designed as a resource for teachers of chemistry. The authors
hope that teachers will take from this resource whatever is
appropriate for their students and make it their own. Teachers
are encouraged to supplement the material with examples of
local problems in order to make it as relevant as possible.
The
field of toxicology continues to develop and a nearly completed
IUPAC project will supplement the existing glossary of terms
in toxicology with a glossary of terms in toxicokinetics,
which is currently available on the IUPAC Web site for comment.
Fundamental Toxicology for Chemists now needs to be
updated and a project to accomplish this has been approved
by the IUPAC Project Committee. It is envisioned that the
book will be totally revised, including terms from the new
glossary and new areas such as toxicogenomics. The editors,
John Duffus and Howard Worth, will ensure that it is coordinated
with related IUPAC activities and will discuss with the publishers
how to facilitate its widest availability.
For
more information, contact the Task Group Chairman J. H. Duffus
<[email protected]>.
www.iupac.org/projects/2001/2001-053-2-700.html
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last modified 3 September 2003.
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