20 september 2019
1. Environmental toxicology: an introduction
This chapter is the first chapter of 'Toxicology, an open online textbook' . The textbook aims at covering the field in its full width, including aspects of environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology, toxicology and risk assessment. Environmental toxicology is the science that studies the fate and effects of potentially hazardous chemicals in the environment. It is a multidisciplinary field assimilating and building upon knowledge, concepts and techniques from other disciplines, such as toxicology, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, genetics, ecology and pathology. Learning objectives of this chapter characterize the field of environmental toxicology; explain what type of knowledge from environmental chemistry, toxicology and ecology is relevant for environmental toxicology; explain the difference between environmental toxicology and ecotoxicology.