Toxicity Class

Information about Toxicity Class

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Acceptable daily intake - Acute toxicity - Bioaccumulation -Fixed Dose Procedure - LD50 - Lethal dose - Toxic capacity - Toxicity Class
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Hazard symbol - Carcinogen - Mutagen - List of Extremely Hazardous Substances - Biological warfare
Toxicity Class refers to a classification system for pesticides created by a national or international government-related or -sponsored organization. It addresses the acute toxicity of agents such as soil fumigants, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, miticides, molluscicides, nematicides, or rodenticides.

General considerations

Assignment to a Toxicity Class is based typically on results of acute toxicity studies such as the determination of LD50 values in animal experiments, notably rodents, via oral, or sometimes inhaled, or external application. The experimental design measures the acute death rate of an agent. The Toxicity Class generally does not address issues of other potential harm of the agent, such as bioaccumulation, issues of carcinogenicity, teratogenicity, or mutagenic effects, or the impact on reproduction.

Regulating agencies may require that packaging of the agent is labeled with a Signal Word, a specific warning label to indicate the level of toxicity to the public.

EPA (United States)

The Environmental Protection Agency knows four Toxicity Classes. Class I to III are required to carry a Signal Word on the label to warn users of the toxicity. Pesticides are regulated by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act(FIFRA).

Toxicity Class I

:Possibly followed by:
::"Fatal if swallowed", "Poisonous if inhaled", "Extremely hazardous by skin contact--rapidly absorbed through skin", or "Corrosive--causes eye damage and severe skin burns".

Toxicity Class II

  • moderate toxic
  • Signal Word: "Warning"
:possibly followed by:
::"Harmful or fatal if swallowed", "Harmful or fatal if absorbed through the skin", "Harmful or fatal if inhaled", or "Causes skin and eye irritation".

Toxicity Class III

  • slightly toxic
  • Signal Word: Caution
:possibly followed by:
::"Harmful if swallowed", "May be harmful if absorbed through the skin", "May be harmful if inhaled", or "May irritate eyes, nose, throat, and skin".

Toxicity Class IV

  • practically nontoxic
  • no Signal Word required since 2002.
Furthermore, the EPA classifies pesticides into those that can be applied by anybody: General Use Pesticides, and those that are restricted, meaning, their application needs to be done by or under the supervision of a certified individual. Application of Restricted Use Pesticides requires that a record of the application is kept.

Generally, agents of Class I will kill an adult person at a dose of less than 5 grams (less than a teaspoon), of Class II at 5-30 grams, and of Class III at more than 30 grams.

WHO

The World Health Organization names four toxicity classes as follows:
  • Class I – a: extremely hazardous;
  • Class I – b: highly hazardous;
  • Class II: moderately hazardous;
  • Class III: slightly hazardous.
The system is based on LD50 determination in rats, thus an oral solid agent with an LD50 at 5mg or less/kg bodyweight is Class I-a, at 5-50 mg/kg Class I-b, at 50-500 mg/kg Class II, and at more than 500 mg/kg Class III. Values may differ for liquid oral agents and dermal agents.

European Union

There are three toxicity classes in the classification system by the European Union, regulated by Directive 67/548/EEC, namely:
  • Class I: very toxic
  • Class II: toxic
  • Class III: harmful.
Very toxic and toxic substances are marked by the European toxicity symbol.

See also

References

External links

Toxicology (from the Greek words toxicos and logos) is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms.[1] It is the study of symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of poisoning, especially the poisoning of people.
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Forensic toxicology is the use of toxicology and other disciplines such as analytical chemistry, pharmacology and clinical chemistry to aid medicolegal investigation of death, poisoning, and drug use.
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This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.
Please help recruit one or [ improve this article] yourself. See the talk page for details.
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history of poisons[1] stretches over a period from before 4500 BC to the present day. Poisons have been used for many purposes across the span of human existence as weapons, anti-venoms and medicines.
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poisons are substances that can cause damage, illness, or death to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism.
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A toxicant is a chemical compound that has an effect on organisms. Toxicants are typically introduced into the environment by human activity.The effects depend on the concentration of the compound.
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An antidote is a substance which can counteract a form of poisoning.

Sometimes, the antidote for a particular toxin is manufactured by injecting the toxin into an animal in small doses and the resulting antibodies are extracted from the animals' blood.
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Acceptable Daily Intake or ADI is a measure of the amount of a specific substance (usually a food additive, or a residue of a veterinary drug or pesticide) in food or drinking water that can be ingested (orally) over a lifetime without an appreciable health risk.
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Acute toxicity describes the adverse effects of a substance which result either from a single exposure[1] or from multiple exposures in a short space of time (usually less than 24 hours).
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Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a toxic substance at a rate greater than that at which the substance is lost. Thus, the longer the biological half-life of the substance the greater the risk of chronic poisoning, even if environmental levels of the toxin are very
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The fixed-dose procedure (FDP) was proposed in 1984 to assess a substance's acute oral toxicity using fewer animals with less suffering than the older LD50 test developed in 1927.
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A lethal dose (LD) is an indication of the lethality of a given substance or type of radiation. Because resistance varies from one individual to another, the 'lethal dose' represents a dose (usually recorded as dose per kilogram of subject body weight) at which a given
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Toxic capacity can mean the toxicity of a substance, possibly in relation to a specific organism and toxic capacity can mean the capacity of an organism, organic system or ecosystem to contain a toxic substance or a selection of toxic substances (a compound) without showing
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toxin (Greek: τοξικόν, toxikon, lit. (poison) for use on arrows) is a poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms.
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Venom (literally, poison of animal origin) is any of a variety of toxins used by certain types of animals, for the purpose of defense and hunting. Generally, venom is injected while other toxins are absorbed by ingestion or through the skin.
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A neurotoxin is a toxin that acts specifically on nerve cells – neurons – usually by interacting with membrane proteins such as ion channels. Many of the venoms and other toxins that organisms use in defense against vertebrates are neurotoxins.
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Necrosis (in Greek Νεκρός = Dead) is the name given to accidental death of cells and living tissue. Necrosis is less orderly than apoptosis, which is part of programmed cell death.
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Hemotoxins, haemotoxins or hematotoxins are toxins that destroy red blood cells (that is, cause hemolysis), disrupt blood clotting, and/or cause organ degeneration and generalized tissue damage.
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Mycotoxin (from the Greek μύκης (mykes, mukos) "fungus") is a toxin produced by an organism of the fungus kingdom, which includes mushrooms, molds and yeasts. Most fungi are aerobic (use oxygen).
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Aflatoxins are naturally occurring mycotoxins that are produced by many species of Aspergillus, a fungus, most notably Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aflatoxins are toxic and carcinogenic.
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Phototoxins are toxins that can cause allergic reactions in particularly susceptible individuals and which can cause dangerous photosensitivity in a much broader range of subjects.
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Daylight.

Fictional chemical weapons

This is the list of fictional chemical weapons. Fictional chemical weapons are toxins that are used on large scale, by either military, paramilitary or terrorist organizations.
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The Bradford sweets poisoning was the accidental arsenic poisoning of more than 200 people in Bradford, England in 1858; an estimated 20 people died when sweets accidentally made with arsenic were sold from a market stall.
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Minamata disease
Classification & external resources

The crippled hand of a Minamata disease victim (W. E. Smith)
ICD-10 T56.1
ICD-9 985.0

MedlinePlus 001651

Minamata disease
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Niigata Minamata disease
Classification & external resources

The crippled hand of a Minamata disease victim
ICD-10 T56.1
ICD-9 985.0

MedlinePlus 001651

Niigata Minamata disease
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Alexander Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised. He died three weeks later, becoming the first known victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome.
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The Bhopal Disaster took place in the early hours of the morning of December 3 1984,[1] in the heart of the city of Bhopal in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
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2007 pet food recalls comprise the contamination and wide recall of many brands of cat and dog foods beginning in March 2007 and the ensuing developments involving the human food supply.
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This is a list of poisonings in chronological order of victim. It also includes confirmed attempted and fictional poisonings. Many of the people listed here committed or attempted to commit suicide by poison; others were poisoned by others.
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Lead poisoning
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 T 56.0
ICD-9 984.9

Lead poisoning is a medical condition, also known as saturnism, plumbism or painter's colic, caused by increased blood lead levels.
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