INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY

Chemical substances in the environment can be hazardous to the structure and function of the ecosystem and through that to humans. The aim of environmental toxicology is to characterize the adverse effects of chemical substances on the ecosystem and humans, though we cannot measure these effects directly. Modern environmental toxicology evovled as a result of a book written by a science writer for the US fish and wild life service Ms. Rachel Carson in 1962 titled “The Silent Spring.”Environmental toxicology is the science and practice of the adverse effects mainly of chemicals and other man-made agents in the environment and through the environment.