Aerospace Toxicology and Microbiology
Aerospace Toxicology and Microbiology John T. James, Ph.D. NASA/Johnson Space Center 2101 NASA Parkway Houston, Texas 77058 281-480-6899 A. J. Parmet, M.D., M.P.H. Occupational and Aerospace Medicine 4320 Wornall Kansas City, Missouri 64111 816-560-0555 Duane L. Pierson, Ph.D. NASA/Johnson Space Center 2101 NASA Parkway Houston, Texas 77058 281-483-7166 All substances are poisons: There is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy. Paracelsus (Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493-1541) INTRODUCTION TO TOXICOLOGY Toxicology dates to the very earliest history of humanity with various poisons and venom being recognized as a method of hunting or waging war with the earliest documentation in the Evers papyrus (circa 1500 BCE). The Greeks identified specific poisons such as hemlock, a method of state execution, and the Greek word toxos (arrow) became the root of our modern science. The first scientific approach to the understanding of poisons and toxicology was the work during the late middle ages of Paracelsus. He formulated what were then revolutionary views that a specific toxic agent or “toxicon” caused specific dose-related effects. His principles have established the basis of modern pharmacology and toxicology. In 1700, Bernardo Ramazzini published the book De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (The Diseases of Workers) describing specific illnesses associated with certain labor, particularly metal workers exposed to mercury, lead, arsenic, and rock dust. Modern toxicology dates from development of the modern industrial chemical processes, the earliest involving an analytical method for arsenic by Marsh in 1836.
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