Being a toxicologist in India is both challenging and confusing. Lack of formal training in toxicology, results in only a handful of doctors/scientists taking up this specialty. [1] Most of the toxicologists in India are internists/pharmacologists or forensic specialists, who have worked hard over the years in developing the specialty. Let’s start with a basic question, what is toxicology? Is it a study of poisons?
Toxicology is the study of the interaction of materials (drugs, chemicals, foods, polymers, pesticides, etc.) with a biological system and its responses . In simpler terms, it is the study of the changes in a living being, especially its different organs, on exposure to or administration of a chemical in different doses. [2] Toxicology is much bigger and wider than we clinicians think with much broader impact on human life. If so, then why it has not developed as much in our…
