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The field of medical toxicology can be simply divided into animal and human poisonings from animal, plant,
or man-made sources. Even more precisely, toxinology is the study of poisoning and envenoming by biological
organisms, and toxicology is the study of human poisoning from manmade sources. Living organisms,
such as animals, plants, and fungi, produce biological toxins. Man-made toxins, or toxoids, are produced by
controlled chemical reactions, often on an industrial scale, designed to produce novel pharmaceuticals, cosmetics,
household cleansers, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and other useful and necessary consumer and
commercial products. Unfortunately, some biological toxins have already been developed, deployed, and used
as bioterror weapons (e.g., ricin from the castor bean and Shiga toxin from Shigella bacteria). Other biological
toxins, most notably Staphyloccal toxins A and B, botulinum toxins, and a variety of fungal mycotoxins,
can be mass-produced by rogue nations for biological warfare and agricultural and antipersonnel terrorism.
Many biological toxins, such as poison hemlock, pyrethrin, and red squill, and man-made toxoids, such as
arsenic and thallium salts and pyrethroids, have long been used as pesticides, fungicides, and even as human
poisons. Several types of poison gases, including both vesicant and neurotoxic agents, were intentionally
released during World War I and in very recent wars (Iran-Iraq War) and terror attacks (Sarin nerve gas
attacks in Japan).
This book will serve as a visual and written reminder of the ubiquitous sources of toxins and toxoids in
the environment and the outcomes of accidental or intentional toxic exposures in humans. This book will
not serve as a comprehensive, major reference source for all toxicologic emergencies; many such comprehensive
and even subspecialized toxicology texts are now available. The key features and benefits of this book
include serving as a handy atlas and review outline of human poisoning with photographs and diagrams of
toxic plants and animals, their mechanisms of poisoning or envenoming, and the human lesions (anatomic,
electrocardiographic, and radiographic) caused by toxic exposures. In addition, this text combines the four
subspecialties of toxicology (Analytical, Medical, Environmental, and Industrial) into one comprehensive
atlas with bulleted text, tables, and figure legends that treat toxic exposures in both children and adults. This
book will be a useful study guide for emergency physicians, military physicians, pediatricians, public health
physicians and veterinarians, and health science and medical students and graduates in training or practice,
or preparing to take image-intense specialty or subspecialty board examinations. Finally, this text will serve
as a ready reference for current health science students who seek immediate visual association of venomous
species and toxicokinetics with the rapid identification of envenoming species, the clinical and diagnostic
outcomes of envenoming or poisoning, and the recommended treatment strategies to limit toxic exposures
and injuries.
This text is intentionally organized in a clinical encounter fashion, beginning with a discussion of general
poisoning management and useful antidotes and later detailing specific management strategies and antidotes
for separate poisonings and envenomings. The book concludes with chapters on biochemical warfare agent
exposure and research design and analysis. Biological and chemical terrorism and warfare agents are timely
subjects that are still evolving, particularly in the areas of early detection by biosurveillance monitoring systems
and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analyses and personnel protection by preventive immunization,
rapid decontamination, specific reversal agents, and personal protective equipment. |
