Environmental Toxicology
Prabesh Devkota
Environmental Toxicology
• Environmental Toxicology, is a multi-
disciplinary field of science concerned with
the study of the harmful effects of various
chemical, biological and physical agents on
living organisms.
Environmental Toxicology
• Rachel Carson is considered the mother of
environmental toxicology, as she made it a distinct
field within toxicology in 1962 with the publication of
her book Silent Spring, which covered the effects of
uncontrolled pesticide use.
• Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964)
was an American marine biologist and
conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other
writings are credited with advancing the global
environmental movement.
Environmental Toxicology
• Harmful effects of chemical and biological
agents can include toxins from pollutants,
insecticides, pesticides, and fertilizers all of
which can impact an organism and its
community through shifts in species diversity
and abundance.
• Resulting changes in population dynamics
impact the ecosystem by altering its
productivity and stability.
Environmental Toxicology
• There are many sources of environmental
toxicity that can lead to the presence of
toxins in our food, water and air.
• These sources include organic and inorganic
pollutants, pesticides and biological agents,
all of which can have harmful effects on living
organisms.
Environmental Toxicology
Environment and health
• There is a close relationship between environment and
human health.
• Deterioration of the health of environment
(environmental degradation environmental problems) has
threatened the wellbeing and survival of human beings.
• Change in environment (naturally or anthropogenically)
has a significant cause of ill health.
• Environmental health covers the assessment, correction,
control and prevention of environmental factors that can
adversely affect health as well as the enhancement of
those aspects of the environment that can improve
human health.
Major causes of environmental
change/pollution
• Population growth
• Increasing industrialization
• Unplanned urbanization
• Deforestation
• Expanding technology and economies
• Massive use of drugs and pesticides
Impact of environmental change
• Air pollution
• Water pollution
• Soil pollution
• Increased quantities of solid wastes
• Depletion of natural resources (water, forest)
• Global warming, Climate change: global and local,
ozone layer depletion
• Release of toxic substances affecting various life
forms including health of human being.
Environmental toxicology is driven by
legislation
• National Environmental Policy Act
• Clean Air Act
• Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act
• Federal Water Pollution Control Act
• Safe Drinking Water Act
• Toxic Substances Control Act
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liabilities Act
Global Impacts
• Chemicals can be transported throughout the
atmosphere and are not bound by political
borders
• DDT and its derivatives are found in the Arctic
and Antarctic.
– They have never been used there
• Radionuclides from the Chernobyl nuclear
power station explosion in the Ukraine in 1986
still contaminate farms in Britain in 2000 and
their lambs cannot be sold for human
consumption
Air Pollution
• Acid precipitation (acidic rain, snow,
particulates etc) is a result of air pollution
caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal and
oil and other compounds containing nitrogen
and sulfur
• Acid precipitation results from the solution of
nitrogen and sulfur oxides to give a mixture of
nitrous, nitric, sulfurous and sulfuric acids
Air Pollution
• The products of burning fossil fuels are
nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx),
volatile organic compounds (VOC), carbon
oxides (carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide),
and particulates
– Environmental damage may result from carbon
monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2)
contributing to the “greenhouse effect”
Air Pollution
• The “greenhouse effect” is heating of the environment
because heat loss from the surface of the earth
through the atmosphere is reduced by reflection of
infrared radiation from gases and vapours such as CO2
and water vapour
• Air pollution affects human health directly as a result
of lung damage and indirectly through damage to
crops, buildings, and acidification of natural waters
- Sulfur and nitrogen oxides aggravate bronchitis and asthma,
putting stress on the heart: they killed more than 4,000
people, mostly elderly, in London in 1952 as a direct result of
these harmful health effects
Stratosphere Ozone Depletion
• Ozone depletion in the upper stratosphere is a
worldwide problem that has required co-
operation by world leaders
• Ozone in the stratosphere protects us from
the harmful effects of excess ultraviolet
radiation from the sun which, among other
things (see below), causes skin cancer
The Montreal Protocol
• CFCs - chlorofluorocarbons (formerly used
extensively as refrigerants and solvents) have
entered the stratosphere and catalytically
reacted with the ozone there, reducing the
amount so much that holes have appeared in
the ozone layer
• The Montreal Protocol of 1987 is an
international treaty signed by many countries
agreeing to reduce the release of CFCs
Global Warming
• It appears that the earth is slowly rising in temperature
(global warming)
– Global warming is thought to be due to increasing levels
of carbon dioxide and water vapour in the atmosphere
caused by large scale burning of fossil fuels
– The carbon dioxide and water vapour permit radiation
from the sun to heat the earth but prevent loss of heat,
in the form of infrared radiation (the greenhouse effect)
• Increased earth temperature is changing the climate
and thus the ecology all round the world
- Increased temperature increases the rate of
transformation of chemicals by microorganisms and
facilitates transfer of volatile substances through the air
Environmental Exposure Routes
• All the changes that occur in the environment
affect people
• Ultimately people can be exposed to any
substance that enters the environment
Potential exposure routes in assessing exposure to the
general public
Risk Assessment for
Environmental Exposure
• Risk assessment for the possible effects of any substance
entering the environment which may harm people must
sum up the exposures through all routes in order to
determine the total exposure and then the possible
effect
• Hazardous wastes are considered highly toxic and
therefore disposal of such wastes needs proper attention
so as to reduce possible environmental hazards.
• Industrial growth has resulted in generation of huge
volume of hazardous wastes in the country. In addition
to this, hazardous wastes sometimes get imported
mainly from the western countries for re-processing or
recycling.
Evolution of pathogen resistance/ antimicrobial
resistance
• Antibiotics are chemicals that kill bacteria and
the first antibiotic was penicillin isolated from
the mold Penicillum by Alexander Fleming.
• Penicillin saved thousands of lives in World War
II and subsequently.
• Today, however, penicillin is ineffective against
bacteria that previously were highly vulnerable
and many bacteria have evolved resistance to
multiple antibiotics.
• As a result, infectious diseases have reemerged
as a significant threat.
• There is clear evidence that use of antibiotics
selects for resistance in bacteria.
• Studies have documented the evolution of
antibiotic resistance in bacterial populations
within individual patients and also in larger-
scale studies of human and bacterial
populations.
• For example, researchers have found that the
incidence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is
higher among patients who have been
previously treated with that antibiotic.
• For example the incidence of isoniazid-resistant
bacteria is 21% in relapsed cases of TB, but only
• First, resistant bacteria,particularly staphylococci,
enterococci, Klebsiella pneumoniae,and
Pseudomonas spp,2-7 are becoming commonplace
in healthcare institutions. Bacterial resistance
often results in treatment failure, which can have
serious consequences, especially in critically ill
patients.
• Inadequate empiric antibacterial therapy, has
been associated with increased mortality rates in
patients with bloodstream infections due to
resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
Staphylococcus aureus, K pneumoniae Escherichia
coli, Enterobacter spp, coagulase-negative
staphylococci, and enterococci.
• The spread of resistant bacteria within the community
poses obvious additional problems for infection control,
not just in long-term care facilities but also among sport
teams, military recruits, and even children attending day
care centers—a task that is complicated by the increased
mobility of our population.
• E,g. methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA) (S. aureus can
cause a range of illnesses, from minor skin infections, such
as pimples, abscesses, to life-threatening diseases such
as pneumonia, meningitis, osteomyelitis, endocarditis, toxi
c shock syndrome)
• The extended-spectrum Beta -lactamase (ESBL)–producing
Ecoli are increasingly observed in the community.
(antibiotic Ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, and ceftazidime,
penicillins, cephamycins have failed)
