• Question: Why do people study toxicology? Does it help anything such as forensics or government ?

    Asked by Bailie + Julie to Anais, katy, Lauren, Richard, Stuart on 10 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Lauren Laing

      Lauren Laing answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      People study toxicology because it is important to understand how chemicals affect humans and wildlife. We need to know if they are safe, and if not, at what concentrations do they become unsafe?

      Toxicology definitely helps government. The scientists run the toxicity tests to see which chemicals are safe, and then this must be communicated to policy makers in government, who make decisions about how these chemicals should be regulated. Sometimes they are banned, sometimes they are found to be safe, other times they are just monitored. Some pesticides are regulated in that farmers can only spray them at certain times of the year, or when it isn’t due to rain, as this could wash the chemical off the fields and into the rivers.

    • Photo: Stuart Atkinson

      Stuart Atkinson answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      There are literally millions of chemicals that have been created in the last 200 years and anything that is put into use needs to be tested to see if it has harmful effects on people, animals or the environment. This can often be a long process, which is why, for example, it takes so long to get a new drug on the market.

      Some chemicals may not be obviously hazardous. You may have heard of CFCs, or at least heard the phrase ‘CFC-free’. CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons, are highly stable gases and liquids and were used as coolants in refrigerants and also to blow into polystyrene to make it light (like the plastic tray you get from the chip shop). They were even used in fire extinguishers.

      In the 1950s people assumed they were completely harmless and didn’t realise that high up in the atmosphere they become broken up by UV light and start to attack the protective ozone layer. They were banned in 1996!

Comments