A pioneering study of the phenomenology of the special state of mind induced by Ayahuasca, a plant-based Amazonian psychotropic brew. The author's research is based both on extensive firsthand experiences with Ayahuasca, and on interviews conducted with a large number of informants coming from different places and backgrounds.

This new volume, Food Safety: Rapid Detection and Effective Prevention of Foodborne Hazards, focuses on the general concepts, mechanisms, and new applications of analytical and molecular biology techniques for detecting, removing, and preventing chemical and biological hazards from food. Edited by a microbiologist and medical officer with over 20 years of laboratory and research experience in bacteriology, molecular biology, infectious disease, and food safety, and who has trained with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the volume provides an abundance of valuable information on food safety and foodborne hazards in our food and drink. Today, food safety is a growing concern not only of food-related professionals and policymakers, but also of the public. Foodborne hazards, including chemical and biological hazards, can cause food intoxication, infectious diseases, cancers, and other health risks. Foodborne diseases are a major public health and economic burden in both the developed and developing countries. In the United States alone, the incidence of foodborne illness is approximately 9.4 million cases with about 56,000 hospitalizations and 1,351 deaths every year. Written in an easy-to-read and user-friend style, each chapter introduces a chemical or biological hazard and addresses: What kinds of disease does the foodborne hazard cause Why is it necessary for us to study it What routes does it take to enter our food and how does it cause us to become sick How do we identify it Chapters then go on to present new technologies employed to detect, isolate, and/or identify the hazard and prevention procedures such as: (ADD BULLETS) How can the current application of new technology be used to detect the foodborne hazards How do we prevent the diseases caused by the foodborne hazards This book will be valuable to professionals and other specialists who work in food preparation, food safety, clinical laboratories, and food manufacturing industry. It will be a resource for food handling trainers as well as to anyone interested in foodborne hazards and their affective detection, reduction, and prevention strategies. This book can also serve as a important reference for more specialized courses in food safety-related courses and training programs.

Nanoparticles have numerous biomedical applications including drug delivery, bone implants and imaging. A protein corona is formed when proteins existing in a biological system cover the nanoparticle surface. The formation of a nanoparticle-protein corona, changes the behaviour of the nanoparticle, resulting in new biological characteristics and influencing the circulation lifetime, accumulation, toxicity, cellular uptake and agglomeration. This book provides a detailed understanding of nanoparticle-protein corona formation, its biological significance and the factors that govern the formation of coronas. It also explains the impact of nanoparticle-protein interactions on biological assays, ecotoxicity studies and proteomics research. It will be of interest to researchers studying the application of nanoparticles as well as toxicologists and pharmaceutical chemists.

With the expansion of human settlements and the environmental changes brought on by human activity and pollutants, toxicology and risk assessment of bird and reptile species is becoming increasingly of interest to toxicologists involved in environmental research. This book focuses specifically on environmental risk assessment in non-conventional bird and reptile species. Bird and Reptile Species in Environmental Risk Assessment Strategies will be an ideal companion to toxicologists and ecologists interested in risk assessment in the environments of birds and reptiles. Particularly those with an interest in the impact introduced by human activity. The book will also be of interest to those working in conservation biology, biological invasion, biocontrol and habitat management.

Insight into the role of hormones, particularly estrogen and testosterone, in health and disease etiology – including interactions with other hormone pathways – has dramatically changed. Estrogen and androgen receptors, with their polymorphisms, are key molecules in all tissues and are involved in a number of homeostatic mechanisms but also pathological processes including carcinogenesis and the development of metabolic and neurological disorders such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can interfere with the endocrine (hormone) systems at certain dosages and play a key role in the pathology of disease. Most known EDCs are manmade and are therefore an increasing concern given the number commonly found in household products and the environment. This book will cover the mechanisms of EDC pathology across the spectrum of disease, as well as risk assessment and government and legal regulation to provide a holistic view of the current issues and cutting-edge research in the topic. With contributions from global leaders in the field, this book will be an ideal reference for toxicologists, endocrinologists and researchers interested in developmental biology, regulatory toxicology and the interface between environment and human health.

Provides better understanding of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and how they affect humans and ecosystems. Includes genesis, categories, environmental fate and behaviour, and associated hazards. Reviews analytical techniques involved in detection, human exposure and management. Discusses environmental dynamics of POPs. Focus is on the comprehensive account of PCDD/Fs, PCBs, and PAH; other organochlorine POPs such as DDT, lindane, and dieldrin.

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element and, as such, it is present in the environment and in our food and drink. It can even be involved in supporting life processes. However, due to its toxicity, there is concern about its presence in our diet. This book examines the real risks and impacts of arsenic in our lives. Looking at arsenic and its compounds, this book explores the presence of arsenic in food and water, the need to clarify its toxicity, and current scientific and public misconceptions about arsenic. It also looks at the use of arsenic in medicine, from cancer treatments to alternative therapies such as homeopathy. Following on from "Is Arsenic an Aphrodisiac?: The Sociochemistry of an Element", this book continues the authors work in addressing the issues surrounding arsenic. It is a fascinating read for general readers as it unveils the reality of our exposure to arsenic in our daily lives.

Latin America is one of the most diverse but also vulnerable regions in the world that is under continuous anthropogenic pressure due to increasing urban, industrial and agricultural developments. Although there are many research groups studying the impacts caused by those pressures, the results and conclusions obtained by many of them are largely unknown because their studies are mostly published at the local or regional scale. Ecotoxicology in Latin America represents an effort to collect and share research performed in Latin America in the area of ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment, presenting a collection of relevant and innovative studies focused on the following topics: (i) Contaminant entrance, transportation, distribution and fate; (ii) Environmental risk in freshwater ecosystems; (iii) Ecological risk in coastal zones; (iv) Biomonitoring programs: water, sediment and air; (v) Physiological effects and biomarkers; (vi) Soil ecotoxicology; (vii) Bioaccumulation and human risk; (viii) Toxicity of emerging contaminants; and (ix) Frontiers in Ecotoxicology. This selection of topics aims at covering the most important subjects and applications of ecotoxicology, including classical and novel subjects. Therefore, this book contains chapters related to different environmental compartments prone to contamination (water, sediment, soil and air), to different contamination sources (agriculture, industry, urban discharges and natural emissions), and to multiple biological responses at different organizational levels (individual to ecosystems, including human beings). It is envisioned to have an international projection within and beyond Latin American countries, as it is a great opportunity to increase the networks not only among Latin American research teams working on similar subjects, but also with teams from other regions. The idea of this book was to favour the connection among groups to quickly improve the development of methods and their application in ecotoxicological and environmental risk studies in Latin America. This book will be useful to important sectors of environmental sciences and related areas, and to specific target demographics such as students and researchers acting in environmental studies, and decision-makers (i.e., politicians and environmental organizations). Ecotoxicology in Latin America presents 34 chapters authored by 111 researchers from 12 Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela) and from 6 non-Latin American countries (Austria, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and USA).

This book provides selected authorship on anthropogenic impacts caused by arsenic, lead, chromium and other pollutants and contaminants emanating from identified activities (e.g. tanning industry, effect of irrigation water and exposure to living tissue). The basis of the study is to improve on the knowledge and spread awareness to the general public. In this book, identified impacts associated with arsenic, chromium, lead, salinity induced processes, effluents and selected synthetic tannins provide a preview of how identified anthropogenic activities can degrade and affect terrestrial, aquatic and human health. In light of this, the individual chapters pursue (to some extent) an experimental and descriptive approach in explaining these aspects. All the contributors of these chapters are specialists in their areas of specialization with very strong research backgrounds. Thus, the book has a formidable basis of communicating the science that is relevant for agronomical activities when evaluating the effluent generation from anthropogenic view, its disposal, potential impacts towards irrigation related to specific geographical areas and the human occupational risks involved overall. It is, therefore, apparent that identifying the denudating aspects of the ecosystems is a paramount step towards building appropriate diagnostic, preventive and curative capabilities in managing the environmental sustainably.

This volume covers a selection of important research in the multifaceted field of food toxicology. With more than seven billion people in the world today and counting, advances in food toxicology have a direct bearing on food safety issues that are of concern to all humanity for the foreseeable future. Massive globalization, industrialization, and commercialization have affected every aspect of food production, the food supply chain, and food consumption. This informative volume offers the global perspectives of scientists in important areas related to biomarkers and nanosensors in food toxicology, toxicology of nanomaterials, chemicals in sanitation and packaging, additives, mycotoxins, endocrine disruptors, radionuclides, toxic metals, and waste-burning residues in food. The book also emphasizes regulatory toxicology and includes an interesting example case study. The challenge of sustainable and safe food for everyone needs a multidisciplinary and multi-sectorial approach from related industries and governments alike. Food chemical safety is an underappreciated aspect of consumer safety, and this volume seeks to help fill that gap by providing informative research for food scientists and researchers and many others.

The term ecotoxicology is the branch of toxicology concerned with the study of toxic effects, caused by natural or synthetic pollutants, to the constituents of ecosystems, animal (including human), vegetable and microbial. This book discusses the ecotoxicological effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment; the effects of various ecotoxicants on nematodes; salinity threats to agricultural productivity; sorption and the ecological risk assessment of non-ionic organic contaminants; and the application of ecotoxicological tools in the assessment, monitoring of Brazilian waters; and others.

Aquatic toxicology is the study of the effects of manufactured chemicals and other anthropogenic and natural materials and activities on aquatic organisms at various levels of organization, from subcellular through individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. This book presents the latest research in this field from around the globe.

This volume studies the risk to the environment and human health posed by nitroPAHS. Data on the in vivo genotoxicity of nitroPAHs are available for 15 nitroPAHs. All nitroPAHs that gave positive results in vivo were also positive in vitro. Four nitroPAHs that were positive in in vitro genotoxicity tests revealed inconsistent or inconclusive genotoxicity (2-nitronaphthalene, 5-nitroacenaphthene and 3-nitrofluoranthene) or negative genotoxicity (2,7-dinitrofluorene; limited validity) results in vivo. There are no reports on the effects of individual nitroPAHs on humans. As would be expected, since nitroPAHs occur in complex mixtures in the atmosphere and exhaust, the exact contribution of nitroPAHs to the adverse health consequences of exposure to polluted atmospheres and to exhaust cannot be elucidated.

Evaluates the carcinogenic risks to humans posed by exposure to X- and g-radiation and to neutrons from external sources. The book opens with a general introduction to nomenclature, dosimetric methods and models in the occupational and environmental settings, the behaviour of radiation in biological tissues, and sources of human exposure. Natural background radiation is identified as by far the largest source of exposure for the world's population. The medical use of X-rays and radiopharmaceuticals constitutes the next most significant source, followed by exposure from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. The collective doses from other sources of radiation are considered much less important. The first and most monograph, on X- and g-radiation, reviews the large body of evidence arising from the extensive investigation of carcinogenic effects in humans, mainly in survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan and patients exposed to radiation for medical reasons. In both groups, an excess number of cases of leukaemia and other cancers have been observed.Irradiation during childhood increases the risk of thyroid cancer, while an increase in breast cancer risk has been observed after irradiation of pre-menopausal women. X-rays and g-rays have also been tested for carcinogenicity at various doses and under various conditions in a range of animal species. In adult animals, the incidences of leukaemia and of mammary, lung, and thyroid tumours were increased in a dose-dependent manner with both types of radiation. Prenatal exposure also gave rise to increased incidences of various types of tumours. On the basis of this evidence, the monograph concludes that X-radiation and g-radiation are carcinogenic to humans. The carcinogenic risk to humans posed by exposure to neutrons is evaluated in the second monograph, which concentrates on risks associated with the exposure of patients to neutron radiotherapy beams and exposures of aircraft passengers and crew. In high-altitude cities, neutrons can constitute as much as 25% of background radiation. Neutrons from various sources with wide ranges of mean energy have been tested for carcinogenicity in different animal species, and at various doses and dose rates.In adult animals, the incidences of leukaemia and ovarian, mammary, lung, and liver cancer were increased in a dose-related manner. Prenatal and parental exposure resulted in increased incidences of liver tumours in the offspring. In virtually all studies, neutrons were more effective in inducing tumours than were X-rays and g-rays when compared on the basis of absorbed dose. Although no adequate human carcinogenicity data were available for assessment, the monograph used other relevant data, including evidence of DNA damage, to reach the conclusion that neutrons are carcinogenic to humans.