Information about toxic

This article is about the scientific term. For other uses, see Toxicity (disambiguation).

“Intoxicated” redirects here. For alcohol intoxication, see Drunkenness.

“Toxic” redirects here. For other uses, see Toxic (disambiguation).

Toxicity is the degree to which something is able to produce illness or damage to an exposed organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as a human or a bacterium or a plant, or to a substructure, such as a cell (cytotoxicity) or an organ (organotoxicity such as the liver (hepatotoxicity). By extension, the word may be metaphorically used to describe toxic effects on larger and more complex groups, such as the family unit or "society at large".

In the science of toxicology, toxicity is the degree of impact of an external substance or condition and its deleterious effects on living things: organisms, organ systems, individual organs, tissues, cells, subcellular units is the subject of study. A central concept of toxicology is that effects are dose-dependent; even water – generally not considered to be toxic – can lead to water intoxication when taken in large enough doses, whereas for even a very toxic substance such as snake venom there is a dose below which there is no detectable toxic effect.

The skull and crossbones is a common symbol for toxicity.

Toxicity is the ability of a chemical or physical agent to induce detrimental temporary or permanent tissue change or to detrimentally interfere with normal biochemical processing.

Types of toxicity

There are generally three types of toxic entities; chemical, biological, and physical.

Chemicals include inorganic substances such as lead, hydrofluoric acid, and chlorine gas, organic compounds such as methyl alcohol, most medications, and poisons from living things.
Biological toxic entities include those bacteria and viruses that are able to induce disease in living organisms. Biological toxicity can be complicated to measure because the "threshold dose" may be a single organism. Theoretically one virus, bacterium or worm can reproduce to cause a serious infection. However, in a host with an intact immune system the inherent toxicity of the organism is balanced by the host's ability to fight back; the effective toxicity is then a combination of both parts of the relationship. A similar situation is also present with other types of toxic agents.
Physically toxic entities include things not usually thought of under the heading of "toxic" by many people: direct blows, concussion, sound and vibration, heat and cold, non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation such as infrared and visible light, and ionizing radiation such as X-rays and alpha, beta, and gamma radiation.

Toxicity can be measured by the effects on the target (organism, organ, tissue or cell). Because individuals typically have different levels of response to the same dose of a toxin, a population-level measure of toxicity is often used which relates the probability of an outcome for a given individual in a population. One such measure is the LD₅₀. When such data does not exist, estimates are made by comparison to known similar toxic things, or to similar exposures in similar organisms. Then "safety factors" are added to account for uncertainties in data and evaluation processes. For example, if a dose of toxin is safe for a laboratory rat, one might assume that one tenth that dose would be safe for a human, allowing a safety factor of 10 to allow for interspecies differences between two mammals; if the data are from fish, one might use a factor of 100 to account for the greater difference between two chordate classes (fish and mammals). Similarly, an extra protection factor may be used for individuals believed to be more susceptible to toxic effects such as in pregnancy or with certain diseases. Or, a newly synthesized and previously unstudied chemical that is believed to be very similar in effect to another compound could be assigned an additional protection factor of 10 to account for possible differences in effects that are probably much smaller. Obviously, this approach is very approximate; but such protection factors are deliberately very conservative and the method has been found to be useful in a wide variety of applications.

The toxicity of cancer-causing agents is problematic, since for many such substances it is not certain if there is a minimal effective dose or whether the risk is just too small to see. There too the possibility exists that a single cell transformed into a cancer cell is all it takes to develop the full effect. Mixtures of chemicals are more difficult to assess in terms of toxicity than are single pure chemicals. Common mixture include gasoline, cigarette smoke, and industrial waste. Even more complex are situations with more than one type of toxic entity, such as the discharge from a malfunctioning sewage treatment plant, with both chemical and biological agents.

Factors influencing toxicity

Toxicity of a substance can be affected by many different factors, such as the pathway of administration (whether the toxin is applied to the skin, ingested, inhaled, injected), the time of exposure (a brief encounter or long term), the number of exposures (a single dose or multiple doses over time), the physical form of the toxin (solid, liquid, gas), the genetic makeup of an individual, an individual's overall health, and many others. Several of the terms used to describe these factors have been included here.

acute exposure: a single exposure to a toxic substance which may result in severe biological harm or death; acute exposures are usually characterized as lasting no longer than a day.

chronic exposure: continuous exposure to a toxin over an extended period of time, often measured in months or years can cause irreversible side effects.

Etymology

"Toxic" and similar words came from Greek τοξον = "bow (weapon)" and via "poisoned arrow," which came to be used for "poison" in scientific language, as the usual Classical Greek word ('ιον) for "poison" would transcribe as "io-", which is not distinctive enough. In some biological names, "toxo-" still means "bow", as in Toxodon = "bow-toothed" from the shape.

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Toxicity is a measure of the degree to which something is toxic or poisonous. In particular, see:

Toxin, a substance produced by living cells or organisms
Toxic mold, a substance produced by some fungi
Mycotoxin, the excrement of mold

Toxicity
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Drunkenness is the state of being intoxicated by consumption of alcohol to a degree that mental and physical facilities are noticeably impaired. Common symptoms may include slurred speech, impaired balance, poor coordination, flushed face, reddened eyes, reduced inhibition,
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Toxicity is a measure of the degree to which something is toxic or poisonous. In particular, see:

Toxin, a substance produced by living cells or organisms
Toxic mold, a substance produced by some fungi
Mycotoxin, the excrement of mold

Toxicity
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Plantae

Chromalveolata

Heterokontophyta

Haptophyta

Cryptophyta

Alveolata

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Bacteria

Phyla

Actinobacteria
Aquificae
Chlamydiae
Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi
Chloroflexi
Chrysiogenetes
Cyanobacteria
Deferribacteres
Deinococcus-Thermus
Dictyoglomi
Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria
Firmicutes
Fusobacteria
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liver is an organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It plays a major role in metabolism and has a number of functions in the body, including glycogen storage, decomposition of red blood cells, plasma protein synthesis, and detoxification.
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Metaphor (from the Greek: metapherin) is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. In the simplest case, this takes the form: "The [first subject] is a [second subject].
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Dose can refer to:

Dose (album), an album by the jam band Gov't Mule
Dose (song), a song by the band Filter
Dose (magazine), a free daily Canadian magazine

In medicine:

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Water intoxication (also known as hyperhydration or water poisoning) is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain function that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits, ironically by that which makes up the
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Serpentes
Linnaeus, 1758

Infraorders and Families

Alethinophidia - Nopcsa, 1923
Acrochordidae- Bonaparte, 1831

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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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inorganic compounds are considered to be of mineral, not biological, origin. Complementarily, most organic compounds are traditionally viewed as being of biological origin.
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2
(Amphoteric oxide)
Electronegativity 2.33 (scale Pauling)
Ionization energies
(more) 1st: 715.6 kJmol⁻¹
2nd: 1450.5 kJmol⁻¹
3rd: 3081.
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Hydrofluoric Acid is a solution of hydrogen fluoride in water. Together with hydrogen fluoride, hydrofluoric acid is a valued source of fluorine, being the precursor to numerous pharmaceuticals, diverse polymers (e.g.
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1, 3, 5, 7
(strongly acidic oxide)
Electronegativity 3.16 (Pauling scale)
Ionization energies
(more) 1st: 1251.2 kJmol⁻¹
2nd: 2298 kJmol⁻¹
3rd: 3822 kJmol⁻¹

Atomic radius 100 pm
Atomic radius (calc.
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organic compounds]] An organic compound is any member of a large class of chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon; for historical reasons discussed below, a few types of compounds such as carbonates, carbon oxides and cyanides, as well as elemental carbon are
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Methanol, also known as methyl alcohol, carbinol, wood alcohol, wood naptha or wood spirits, is a chemical compound with chemical formula CH₃OH.
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original research or unverifiable claims.
* It needs additional references or sources for verification.

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An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. In an infection, the infecting organism seeks to utilize the host's resources to multiply (usually at the expense of the host).
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immune system is a collection of mechanisms within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own healthy
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A biological agent is an infectious disease or toxin that can be used in bioterrorism or biological warfare. There are more than 1200 different kinds of biological agents.
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''For other uses, see oscillator (disambiguation)

Oscillation is the variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states.
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Electromagnetic (EM) radiation is a self-propagating wave in space with electric and magnetic components. These components oscillate at right angles to each other and to the direction of propagation, and are in phase with each other.
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Ionizing radiation is energetic particles or waves that have the potential to ionize an atom or molecule through atomic interactions. It is a function of the energy of the individual particles or waves, and not a function of the number of particles or waves present.
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X-rays (or Röntgen rays) are a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength in the range of 10 to 0.01 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 PHz to 30 EHz. X-rays are primarily used for diagnostic radiography and crystallography.
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Alpha particles (named after and denoted by the first letter in the Greek alphabet, α) consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium nucleus; hence, it can be written as He²⁺ or ⁴₂He.
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Beta particles are high-energy, high-speed electrons or positrons emitted by certain types of radioactive nuclei such as potassium-40. The beta particles emitted are a form of ionizing radiation also known as beta rays. The production of beta particles is termed beta decay.
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Toxic

Types of toxicity

Factors influencing toxicity

Etymology

See also

External links