Japan s asbestos disasters, encompassing both occupational disease and environmental pollution, have been caused principally by the asbestos textile, asbestos cement water pipe, and construction industries. This book is unique in its interdisciplinary approach to those disasters as it incorporates medical science, economics, political science, law, architecture, environmental engineering, sociology, and journalism. Written by authorities in their fields, the chapters reflect the integration of these disciplines in topics that include a historical review of asbestos issues in Japan, asbestos-related diseases, international aspects of the asbestos industry, public policy, divisions of responsibility, relief activities in emergencies, and countermeasures enacted by local governments. The lessons of asbestos problems and policies in Japan are particularly important for developing countries to prevent the proliferation of asbestos disasters. This volume serves as a textbook on asbestos issues for all countries, especially where there is widespread use of asbestos.

International concern in scientific, industrial, and governmental communi ties over traces of xenobiotics in foods and in both abiotic and biotic envi ronments has justified the present triumvirate of specialized publications in this field: comprehensive reviews, rapidly published research papers and progress reports, and archival documentations. These three international publications are integrated and scheduled to provide the coherency essential for nonduplicative and current progress in a field as dynamic and complex as environmental contamination and toxicology. This series is reserved ex clusively for the diversified literature on "toxic" chemicals in our food, our feeds, our homes, recreational and working surroundings, our domestic animals, our wildlife and ourselves. Tremendous efforts worldwide have been mobilized to evaluate the nature, presence, magnitude, fate, and toxi cology of the chemicals loosed upon the earth. Among the sequelae of this broad new emphasis is an undeniable need for an articulated set of authoritative publications, where one can find the latest important world literature produced by these emerging areas of science together with docu mentation of pertinent ancillary legislation. Research directors and legislative or administrative advisers do not have the time to scan the escalating number of technical publications that may contain articles important to current responsibility. Rather, these individu als need the background provided by detailed reviews and the assurance that the latest information is made available to them, all with minimal literature searching."

This book focuses on the principles, methods, and interpretation involved in establishing the safety, risk, and hazard assessment of small molecules. It presents the regulatory requirements for risk and hazard identification as per the guidelines of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris, and the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use ICH and Schedule 'Y', India. It serves as reference material for undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy degree students as well as senior researchers to learn about the principles, methods, and interpretations of systemic dosage (acute and repeated dose) and genotoxicity (in vitro and in vivo), special toxicological investigations such as reproductive and developmental toxicology, carcinogenicity, and toxicokinetics using animal models or in vitro methods, as applicable. This book is the first of its kind in providing information on the principles and methods of implementation of Good Laboratory Practice based on the guidelines of OECD. It includes detailed chapters about the regulatory requirements and guidelines in pharmaceutical products and agrochemicals. It also describes the infrastructure needed for preclinical studies, including in vivo and in vitro facilities.

Chronic diseases are the leading cause of deaths worldwide and according to the World Economics Council and the Harvard School of Public Health, the cost of chronic diseases is expected to reach a staggering 48% of global gross domestic product by the year 2030. The urgency of the issue was demonstrated in 2011 when for only the second time in its existence, the U.N. General Assembly brought a health issue to the floor for consideration: chronic diseases.

To date, most considerations of the issue have approached the topic from the vantage point that chronic diseases are a myriad of largely unconnected diseases and conditions arising in diverse tissues, organs and physiological systems. This book, "Immunotoxicity, Immune Dysfuction, and Chronic Disease," deviates from that prior model. It considers the interconnectivity of chronic diseases with both environmental insult of the immune system and subsequent immune dysfunction and inflammatory dysregulation as the underlying basis for many, if not most, chronic diseases.

This change in the perception of environment-immune linkages to chronic disease is significant and has immediate implications both for the prevention of disease as well as for the development of more effective therapeutic approaches. Rather than considering environmental factors and types of reported immune alterations ("e.g., " depressed humoral immunity) as is common in books involving immunotoxicity, the present book approaches the environment-immune-disease triad from the standpoint of the disease. Each chapter emphasizes one or more specific immune dysfunction-based chronic disease(s) or condition(s) ("e.g., " asthma, atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, lupus) and describes: 1) the suggested environmental risk factors, 2) the underlying immune dysfunction(s) associated with the disease and 3) the overall health consequences of the disease.

This book is an early entry for a new Toxicology book series for Springer titled: Molecular and Integrative Toxicology (MaIT). The series will feature detailed research information, but in the context of a more integrative or holistic framework. As part of this framework, the chapters will contain a section on Key Points as well as Recommendations where appropriate. The goal is to cover the most timely, state-of-the-art issues in toxicology as well as to ensure that the information is maximally accessible for research scientists, teachers, physicians and students. We are particularly grateful to the numerous chapter authors for providing comprehensive and expert disease-oriented contributions. We are also appreciative of their willingness to consider their material not as disparate pieces of what has become a major health crisis, but rather as key pieces in a network of apparently interconnected health challenges."

Health Effects of Ambient Air Pollution provides the reader with an overview of the health effects of air pollution in human subjects. The majority of the book is devoted to the discussion of the health effects of common widespread air pollutants regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through national ambient air quality standards. The book reviews the sources and fate of common air pollutants in ambient air and researches the adverse effects of these outdoor and indoor air pollutants in in vivo' cell systems, animals, and humans. Research for the book was conducted in controlled laboratory studies and epidemiologic studies. Special emphasis throughout Health Effects of Ambient Air Pollution is placed on the effects of air pollution in subjects with asthma.

This book provides a comprehensive treatise on the chemical and biochemical consequences of damaging free radical reactions, the implications for the pathogenesis of disease and how this might be controlled endogenously and by radical scavenging drugs. Oxidative stress may be influenced by exogenous agents of oxidative stress, radiation, trauma, drug activation, oxygen excess, or by exogenous oxidative stress which is associated with many pathological states including chronic inflammatory disorders, cardiovascular disease, injury to the central nervous system, and connective tissue damage. This and many other such aspects are presented clearly and in depth.

The development of antioxidant drugs depends on the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the generation of excessive free radicals "in vivo," the factors controlling their release and the site of their action. This excellent volume presents an up-to-date account of the current state of knowledge in these areas.

Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine has become a classic text in the field of free radical and antioxidant research. Now in its fifth edition, the book has been comprehensively rewritten and updated whilst maintaining the clarity of its predecessors. Two new chapters discuss 'in vivo' and 'dietary' antioxidants, the first emphasising the role of peroxiredoxins and integrated defence mechanisms which allow useful roles for ROS, and the second containing new information on the role of fruits, vegetables, and vitamins in health and disease. This new edition also contains expanded coverage of the mechanisms of oxidative damage to lipids, DNA, and proteins (and the repair of such damage), and the roles played by reactive species in signal transduction, cell survival, death, human reproduction, defence mechanisms of animals and plants against pathogens, and other important biological events. The methodologies available to measure reactive species and oxidative damage (and their potential pitfalls) have been fully updated, as have the topics of phagocyte ROS production, NADPH oxidase enzymes, and toxicology. There is a detailed and critical evaluation of the role of free radicals and other reactive species in human diseases, especially cancer, cardiovascular, chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. New aspects of ageing are discussed in the context of the free radical theory of ageing. This book is recommended as a comprehensive introduction to the field for students, educators, clinicians, and researchers. It will also be an invaluable companion to all those interested in the role of free radicals in the life and biomedical sciences.

Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals, Fourth Edition bridges the gap between established knowledgebase and new advances in metal toxicology to provide one essential reference for all those involved in the field. This book provides comprehensive coverage of basic toxicological data, emphasizing toxic effects primarily in humans, but also those of animals and biological systems in vitro. The fourth edition also contains several new chapters on important topics such as nanotoxicology, metals in prosthetics and dental implants, gene-environment interaction, neurotoxicology, metals in food, renal, cardiovascular, and diabetes effects of metal exposures and more. Volume I covers "General Considerations" and Volume II is devoted to "Specific Metals." A multidisciplinary resource with contributions from internationally-recognized experts, the fourth edition of the Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals is a prominent and indispensable reference for toxicologists, physicians, pharmacologists, engineers, and all those involved in the toxicity of metals.

The annual cost of medical care in the U niled States is rapidly approaching a trillion dollars. Without doubt, much of the rise in costs is due to our health industry's concentration on high technology remediation and risk avoidance measures. From recent public discussions it is becoming in creasingly evident that to contain the costs and at the same time extend the benefits of health care without national bankruptcy will necessitate much greater attention to preventative medicine. The total cost of waste disposal by our health industry is well over a billion dollars. It is rising rapidly as we increasingly rely on high technol ogy remediation measures. Here, too, in the opinion of the authors of this work, it would be prudent to give much greater attention to preventative approaches. Incineration technology has largely been developed for disposing mu nicipal solid waste (MSW) and hazardous waste (HW). As a result of the multibillion dollar funding for the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), most experts believe that pollution control is the key to minimizing toxic emissions from incinerators. This view is now beginning to take hold in medical waste (MW) incineration as well. However, the authors contributing to this book have concluded that precombustion measures can be most effective in reducing the toxic products of medical waste incineration."

For many years, Springer has been publishing an impressive series of textbooks of pharmacology which have set standards in medical science. Surprisingly, an extensive overview of the current state of the art in research on estrogens and anti estrogens was still lacking. The present two volumes on estrogens and antiestrogens provide a comprehensive review of a field of research in which remarkable progress has been made over the past few years. New insights into the mechanisms of steroid hormone action resulted in a tremendous number of publications from which new principles of preventive and therapeutic appli cations of estrogens and antiestrogens emerged. Although various electronic data bases provide easy access to this copious information, there was a clear necessity for a monograph-style textbook which assesses and summarizes current knowledge in this rapidly expanding field of research. It should be noted, however, that, due to this dynamic development, it is barely possible to comprehensively update every aspect of basic and clinical knowledge on estro gens and antiestrogens. Thus, the intention of the editors was to provide the reader with an overview of the "classic" and most recently explored areas of research and stimulate future interests in basic and applied endocrinology. Estrogens were among the first steroid hormones described in the scientific literature. Since they were first isolated, since the chemical, synthesic and pharmacological characterization of naturally occurring estrogens and, later on, of orally active derivatives, estrogen research has produced continu ously hallmark results in reproductive endocrinology worldwide.

At no other time in human existence has there been so many environmental changes. Over 87,000 chemicals are now commercially available in the U.S., almost all of which have not been tested for safety, particularly in young children and the growing fetus.The number and quantity of chemicals has continued to increase since World War II-and so too has the incidence of many chronic health problems, such as Type 2 Diabetes, obesity, thyroid disease, asthma, allergy, autoimmune disease, autism, ADHD, and several cancers. Many studies have revealed that exposure to chemicals and radiation in our everyday environment may increase risk for these conditions. Integrative Environmental Medicine examines the history and changing landscape of our environment in the U.S. and shares up-to-date research and information on ways to reduce exposures and reduce health risks. This text explores the unique properties of many chemicals and their ability to deceive the human body's normal workings, affecting everything from thyroid and autoimmune disease risk, to cancer development, to developmental issues in children, and even the development of diabetes and weight gain through gut bacteria manipulation. We discuss topics of improving regulations and appropriate testing for chemicals, remediation of environmental catastrophes, and designing healthier products for the future. Finally, we discuss best practices for clinicians to ascertain exposure history and teach patients how to avoid harmful exposures and help their body eliminate contaminates through better dietary and lifestyle practices. Throughout this book, we share vetted, practical resources and tools-including websites, phone apps, physician and patient hand-outs-to help healthcare practitioners facilitate healthier choices for themselves and their patients. This text is unique in that it offers tangible, practical information that can easily be integrated into the daily work flow of patient clinical care; websites, phone apps, physician and patient handouts and printable lists.

Endocrine Disruptors in the Environment A concise and engaging overview of endocrine disruption phenomena that brings complex concepts within the reach of non-specialists For most of the last decade, the science of endocrine disruption has evolved with more definitive evidence of its damaging potential to health and environment. This book lists the major environmental chemicals of concern and their mechanism of endocrine disruption including remedial measures for them. Divided into three parts, Endocrine Disruptors in the Environment begins with an overview of the endocrine system and endocrine disruptors, discussing their salient features and presenting a historical perspective of endocrine disruption phenomena. It then goes on to cover hormone- signaling mechanisms, followed by various broad classes of putative endocrine disruptors, before introducing readers to environmental epigenetic modifications. Part two of the book focuses on removal processes of various EDCs by biotic and abiotic transformation/degradation. The last section consists of four chapters embracing themes on finding solutions to environmental EDCs--including their detection, regulation, replacement, and remediation. Endocrine Disruptors in the Environment is the first book to detail the endocrine effects of several known environmental contaminants and their mechanism of endocrine disruption. Additionally, it: Covers both the chemistry and biology of endocrine disruption and compiles almost all the known endocrine disrupting environmental chemicals and their mechanisms of toxicity Addresses policy and regulatory issues relevant to EDCs including scientific uncertainty and precautionary policy Brings forth the use of Green Chemistry principles in avoiding endocrine disruption in the designing and screening for safer chemicals and remediation of the EDCs in aquatic environment Includes a useful glossary of technical terms, a list of acronyms, topical references, and a subject index Endocrine Disruptors in the Environment is an ideal book for environmental chemists and endocrine toxicologists, developmental biologists, endocrinologists, epidemiologists, environmental health scientists and advocates, and regulatory officials tasked with risk assessment in environment and health areas.

There is a great dispar.ity between the ability of the major industrial nations to produce and distribute chemicals and our ability to comprehend the nature and potential severity of unintended consequences for man, his life support systems and the environment generally. Furthermore, the gap between our ability to produce and distribute myriad chemicals and our ability to identify, understand or predict unfavorable environmental impacts may widen. As environmental scientists we are conscious of the interrelatedness, not only of environmental systems, but of nations as well. Materials are continually moved across boundaries by human as well as natural agencies. The extent, rate and nature of transfer for most pollutants is largely unknown. We can only guess which of the numerous chemicals produced are candidates for concern. More important still is our practical ignorance of the mechanisms of chronic effects upon natural systems and of the concentrations, combinations and circumstances that may lead to irreversibilities or to serious consequences for man. We know very little also regarding the potential for or the kinds of indirect effects that might occur. With respect to the environmentltself, we know little of its assimilative capacity with regard to widely dispersed pollutants and their transformation products. But what we do know is disquieting, and a much-improved system for the evaluation and management of toxic and hazardous chemicals is needed.

The subject of aluminium and Alzheimer's disease has been plagued with controversy. This controversy has served to obscure much of the scientific research in this field, and subsequently has obscured the possibility that aluminium is a contributory factor in the aetiology of Alzheimer's disease.
This book brings together many of the world's leading scientists researching aluminium and life and contains their critical summaries on the known facts about aluminium toxicity in man and to offer an opinion on the implications of this knowledge on a link between aluminium and Alzheimer's disease. The subject areas of the chapters were chosen to reflect the myriad of ways that aluminium is known to impact upon mammalian physiology and function and range from clinical studies, through animal models of disease to the detailed biochemistry of aluminium toxicity. Chapters are also included on epidemiology and other factors involved in the aetiology of Alzheimer's.
This is the first time that this subject has been treated in such a comprehensive manner. The research detailed in each chapter, includes the latest research in the field, it has been critically appraised and this appraisal has been used by each author to present an informed opinion of its relevance to aluminium and Alzheimer's disease. The chapters are much more than reviews; they are a statement of the state of the art and of what the future may hold for research in this field. As a whole they show the high quality of research that has been carried out in our efforts to understand the toxicity of aluminium in man and that we are far away from discounting the possibility that aluminium is a contributory factor in the aetiology of Alzheimer's disease.

Foodborne Infections and Intoxications, Fifth Edition brings together up-to-date, relevant interdisciplinary expertise of 70 authors presenting foodborne disease pathogens and toxins, microbiology, disease diagnosis and treatment, epidemiology, and disease prevention in the context of public health and food safety regulation. Beginning with the estimation of foodborne disease burden at the international scale, this book dives deep in foodborne disease outbreak investigation, food safety risk assessment, and molecular analysis, together with detailed descriptions of the major bacteria, viruses, parasites, and toxins associated with foodborne illness. This new edition also emphasizes development of risk-based approaches to food safety and safety regulation implementation. This book is a valuable scientific resource for understanding causes and management of foodborne diseases. The new edition offers the latest knowledge and updates on foodborne infections and intoxications and food safety for multiple generations of students, investigators, public health workers, food scientists, and food safety practitioners.

This book is based on an international meeting organized by the University of Tokyo and the University of Rochester, and is published as one belonging to the series of Rochester International Conferences in Environmental Toxicity. The meeting on "Advances in Mercury Toxicology" was held at the University of Tokyo on August 1 to 3, 1990. The invited papers are published in this book along with an "Overview" chapter that was written by the editors at a meeting held at the University of Rochester on August 1 to 2, 1991. The purpose of the meeting was to assemble leading scientists to discuss their most recent findings on the toxicology of mercury. The time was opportune. Considerable progress has been made on the environmental fate and toxicology of mercury. Recent findings have given new insight into the global model for mercury. Transport in the atmosphere extends great distances resulting in pollution of lakes and rivers far distant from the source of mercury release. The process of methylation leads to accumulation of methylmercury in fish and thus in the human diet. New evidence indicates that acid rain and the impoundment of water for hydroelectric purposes affects the methylation and bioaccumulation processes resulting in higher levels of methylmercury in fish.

This volume represents the proceedings of the Fifth Congress of the International Society of Ocular Toxicology (ISOT), which was held at the Grove Park Inn and Resort in Asheville, North Carolina, October 13-17, 1996. We are delighted to present this volume to the ophthalmic community, especially those with a significant interest in ocular toxicol ogy. The Fifth Congress was developed around themes relating to ocular drug metabolism, the ocular pathophysiological effects of nitric oxide, government issues relating to the use of alternative methods for toxicity testing, and a workshop that encompassed comparisons of both in vitro versus in vivo models as well as different animal models. The outcome of this congress, embodied in this volume, is a contribution to the methodologies currently employed or under development and to various drug or physical effects on different ocular tissues. While the focus of this proceedings is on ocular effects of drugs or other materials, many of the contributions deal with topics that have a much broader interest. The workshop concerning the use of different model systems and the choice of the best animal model for drug testing covers a wide range of interests that ex tends far beyond specific ocular effects. This is especially true in the area of alternative methods and in the choice of the best animal model for examination of different disease entities.

Shortlisted for the BMA Book Awards and Macavity Awards 2016 Fourteen novels. Fourteen poisons. Just because it's fiction doesn't mean it's all made-up ... Agatha Christie revelled in the use of poison to kill off unfortunate victims in her books; indeed, she employed it more than any other murder method, with the poison itself often being a central part of the novel. Her choice of deadly substances was far from random - the characteristics of each often provide vital clues to the discovery of the murderer. With gunshots or stabbings the cause of death is obvious, but this is not the case with poisons. How is it that some compounds prove so deadly, and in such tiny amounts? Christie's extensive chemical knowledge provides the backdrop for A is for Arsenic, in which Kathryn Harkup investigates the poisons used by the murderer in fourteen classic Agatha Christie mysteries. It looks at why certain chemicals kill, how they interact with the body, the cases that may have inspired Christie, and the feasibility of obtaining, administering and detecting these poisons, both at the time the novel was written and today. A is for Arsenic is a celebration of the use of science by the undisputed Queen of Crime.

"The book is comprised of individual reviews with the common goal of providing up-to-date state of the knowledge information on the role the environment plays in the pathogenesis of parkinsonism. The reviews focus on recent advances in the quest of deciphering the molecular and cellular mechanisms of parkinsonian dysfunction, highlight specific emerging dopaminergic toxicants and an alternative experimental model to study the link between environmental exposures and parkinsonism, and provide an update from epidemiological and experimental points of view related to the pesticide exposures and parkinsonism/Parkinson's Disease association. Foremost experts in their respective fields are the senior authors on each chapter and the book fills a critical void that now exists as a book of similar nature has not been published in the last 15 years. Researchers and clinicians with an interest in Parkinson's Disease and related disorders, as well as toxicologists, graduate students, and the general public who are interested in the contribution of environmental factors to neurological dysfunction are among the readership for this book."

Metal Carcinogenesis Testing explains fundamental principles of metal carcinogenesis as they are currently understood, and provides detailed practical descriptions of rapid and inexpensive in vitro assay methodology presently in use for the detection of potentially carci nogenic metals and their compounds. Mounting experimental evidence has suggested that a number of metals and their compounds are potentially carcinogenic to humans. Since humans are exposed to these potentially carcinogenic metals in industrial situations and through environmental pollution, it is essential that experimental protocols be available to identify the specific metal compounds that are potentially carcinogenic. This book affords a thorough description of the various carcinogenesis test systems available for metals, centering on those that are rapid, inexpensive, and most reliable. The principles are discussed at the level of human exposure, of animal studies, and of research in vitro. Additionally, the molecular mechanisms of metal-induced cancer are considered at each ofthese three levels.In large part, the emphasis rests on the use of in vitro, biochemical and bacterial studies, including tissue culture, because these methods are the basis of the rapid and inexpensive screening of potentially carcinogenic substances."

In Infertile Environments, Janelle Lamoreaux investigates how epigenetic research into the effects of toxic exposure conceptualizes and configures environments. Drawing on fieldwork in a Nanjing, China, toxicology lab that studies the influence of pesticides and other pollutants on male reproductive and developmental health, Lamoreaux shows how the lab's everyday research practices bring national, hormonal, dietary, maternal, and laboratory environments into being. She situates the lab's work within broader Chinese history as well as the contemporary cultural and political moment, in which declining fertility rates and reproductive governance and technology are growing concerns. She also points to how toxicology in China is a transnational endeavor tied to both local conditions and international research agendas and infrastructures, which highlights the myriad scales and scope of epigenetic environments. At a moment of growing concerns about toxins, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and climate change, Lamoreaux demonstrates that epigenetic research's proliferation of environments produces new kinds of toxic relations that impact multiple generations of humans.

Spatiotemporal Environmental Health Modelling: A Tractatus Stochasticus provides a holistic, conceptual and quantitative framework for Environmental Health Modelling in space-time. The holistic framework integrates two aspects of Environmental Health Science that have been previously treated separately: the environmental aspect, which involves the natural processes that bring about human exposure to harmful substances; and the health aspect, which focuses on the interactions of these substances with the human body. Some of the fundamental issues addressed in this work include variability, scale, uncertainty, and space-time connectivity. These topics are important in the characterization of natural systems and health processes. Spatiotemporal Environmental Health Modelling: A Tractatus Stochasticus explains why modern stochastics is the appropriate mechanical vehicle for addressing such issues in a rigorous way. In particular, modern stochastics incorporates concepts and methods from probability, classical statistics, geostatistics, statistical mechanics and field theory. The authors present a synthetic view of environmental health that embraces all of the various components and focuses on their mutual interactions. Spatiotemporal Environmental Health Modeling: A Tractatus Stochasticus includes new material on Bayesian maximum entropy estimation techniques and space-time random field estimation methods. The authors show why these methods have clear advantages over the classical geostatistical estimation procedures and how they can be used to provide accurate space-time maps of environmental health processes. Also included are expositions of diagrammatic perturbation and renormalization group analysis, which have not been previously discussed within the context of Environmental Health. Finally, the authors present stochastic indicators that can be used for large-scale characterization of contamination and investigations of health effects at the microscopic level. This book will be a useful reference to both researchers and practitioners of Environmental Health Sciences. It will appeal specifically to environmental engineers, geographers, geostatisticians, earth scientists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, pharmacologists, applied mathematicians, physicists and biologists.

Handbook on Biological Warfare Preparedness provides detailed information on biological warfare agents and their mode of transmission and spread. In addition, it explains methods of detection and medical countermeasures, including vaccine and post-exposure therapeutics, with specific sections detailing diseases, their transmission, clinical signs and symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, vaccines, prevention and management. This book is useful reading for researchers and advanced students in toxicology, but it will also prove helpful for medical students, civil administration, medical doctors, first responders and security forces. As the highly unpredictable nature of any event involving biological warfare agents has given rise to the need for the rapid development of accurate detection systems, this book is a timely resource on the topic.