Formation | 1977 |
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Location |
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Official language | English |
President | William J Brock [1] |
Website | https://www.actox.org/ |
The American College of Toxicology (ACT) is a professional association that provides a forum for the advancement and exchange of scientific information in the field of toxicology.
Founded in 1977, ACT was originally established to provide an organization for scientists in the field of toxicology with the goals of advancing the field of toxicology and acting as a forum for the exchange of information between regulators, academia, and industry. [2] Although the initial focus was for environmental concerns, the College quickly grew to encompass all of applied toxicology, with actions including holding a joint symposium with the Society for Risk Assessment, and organizing a task force that would eventually grow to become the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (ATS).[ citation needed ] The College was also one of the first societies to offer Continuing Education courses and established the triennial Salary Survey. [3]
As of 2024, ACT's membership includes more than 1150 toxicologists who work in academia, industry, government regulatory agencies, or as private consultants.
ACT provides a forum for collegiate exchange of information and provides educational opportunities including Symposia, Workshops, and Continuing Education (CE) courses offered at an annual scientific meeting, [4] as well as podcasts, webinars, and multi-day training courses in basic, advanced, or specialty toxicology which are held throughout the year.
ACT publishes the International Journal of Toxicology .
ACT Council serves as the Board of Directors for the College, jointly overseeing and providing general administration, direction, and management of the affairs of the College. [5]
The International Journal of Toxicology (IJT) is the official publication of ACT, offering academic, industry, and regulatory toxicologists, as well as toxicology consultants, timely, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary articles and incisive reviews on contemporary issue in toxicology, plus safety assessments, novel approaches to toxicological testing, mechanisms of toxicity, biomarkers, and risk assessment. The Journal also publishes invited reviews, articles based on symposia, book and media reviews, and editorials. Three supplemental issues each year are devoted to contributions from the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel of the Personal Care Products Council (formerly the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association [CTFA]).
Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating exposures to toxins and toxicants. The relationship between dose and its effects on the exposed organism is of high significance in toxicology. Factors that influence chemical toxicity include the dosage, duration of exposure, route of exposure, species, age, sex, and environment. Toxicologists are experts on poisons and poisoning. There is a movement for evidence-based toxicology as part of the larger movement towards evidence-based practices. Toxicology is currently contributing to the field of cancer research, since some toxins can be used as drugs for killing tumor cells. One prime example of this is ribosome-inactivating proteins, tested in the treatment of leukemia.
University of Rovira i Virgili is located in the Catalan cities of Tarragona and Reus, Spain. Its name is in honor of Antoni Rovira i Virgili.
A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in order to dispense them safely to the public and to provide consultancy services. A pharmacist also often serves as a primary care provider in the community and offers services, such as health screenings and immunizations.
Clinical ecology was the name given by proponents in the 1960s to a claim that exposure to low levels of certain chemical agents harm susceptible people, causing multiple chemical sensitivity and other disorders. Clinical ecologists are people that support and promote this offshoot of conventional medicine. They often have a background in the field of allergy or otorhinolaryngology, and the theoretical approach is derived in part from classic concepts of allergic responses, first articulated by Theron Randolph and developed by Richard Mackarness.
Alternatives to animal testing are the development and implementation of test methods that avoid the use of live animals. There is widespread agreement that a reduction in the number of animals used and the refinement of testing to reduce suffering should be important goals for the industries involved. Two major alternatives to in vivo animal testing are in vitro cell culture techniques and in silico computer simulation; however, some claim they are not true alternatives because simulations use data from prior animal experiments and cell cultures often require animal derived products, such as serum or cells. Others say that they cannot replace animals completely as they are unlikely to ever provide enough information about the complex interactions of living systems.
The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) is the Canadian government agency responsible for the regulation of pest control products in Canada under the federal authority of the Pest Control Products Act and Regulations. The agency is a branch that reports to Parliament through Health Canada. The PMRA is responsible for providing access to pest management tools while minimizing the risks to human health and the environment by “using modern evidence-based scientific approaches to pesticide regulation, in an open and transparent manner”. Their main activity areas include: new product evaluation, post market review and compliance and enforcement.
Toxicology testing, also known as safety assessment, or toxicity testing, is the process of determining the degree to which a substance of interest negatively impacts the normal biological functions of an organism, given a certain exposure duration, route of exposure, and substance concentration.
Because of the ongoing controversy on the implications of nanotechnology, there is significant debate concerning whether nanotechnology or nanotechnology-based products merit special government regulation. This mainly relates to when to assess new substances prior to their release into the market, community and environment.
Nanomaterials can be both incidental and engineered. Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are nanoparticles that are made for use, are defined as materials with dimensions between 1 and 100nm, for example in cosmetics or pharmaceuticals like zinc oxide and TiO2 as well as microplastics. Incidental nanomaterials are found from sources such as cigarette smoke and building demolition. Engineered nanoparticles have become increasingly important for many applications in consumer and industrial products, which has resulted in an increased presence in the environment. This proliferation has instigated a growing body of research into the effects of nanoparticles on the environment. Natural nanoparticles include particles from natural processes like dust storms, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and ocean water evaporation.
The Risk Information Exchange (RiskIE) is an internet database created in 2007 by Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA). The database provides in-progress and recently completed chemical risk assessments. RiskIE is designed to help scientists stay aware of current chemical evaluations, identify opportunities for collaborations, and decide how to efficiently proceed with chemical registration with organizations such as the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) also uses this database, claiming that as of 2022, it is already in use in 52 countries.
Regulatory science is the scientific and technical foundations upon which regulations are based in various industries – particularly those involving health or safety. Regulatory bodies employing such principles in the United States include, for example, the FDA for food and medical products, the EPA for the environment, and the OSHA for work safety.
The National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) was the Australian government's regulatory body for industrial chemicals until 2020. NICNAS was designed to help protect workers, the public and the environment from the harmful effects of industrial chemicals. It made risk assessment and safety information on chemicals widely available and providing recommendations for their safe use. NICNAS also informed importers and manufacturers of their legal responsibilities.
International Journal of Toxicology (IJT) is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of toxicology. The journal's editor is Mary Beth Genter, PhD. It has been in publication since 1982 and is currently published by SAGE Publications in association with American College of Toxicology.
European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA) promotes the application of the 3Rs principles in meeting regulatory requirements for products such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, soaps, detergents and cosmetics. The EPAA covers research and development, as well as the use of 3Rs approaches in regulatory compliance and communication and dissemination.
The discipline of evidence-based toxicology (EBT) strives to transparently, consistently, and objectively assess available scientific evidence in order to answer questions in toxicology, the study of the adverse effects of chemical, physical, or biological agents on living organisms and the environment, including the prevention and amelioration of such effects. EBT has the potential to address concerns in the toxicological community about the limitations of current approaches to assessing the state of the science. These include concerns related to transparency in decision making, synthesis of different types of evidence, and the assessment of bias and credibility. Evidence-based toxicology has its roots in the larger movement towards evidence-based practices.
The non-profit Evidence-based Toxicology Collaboration (EBTC) comprises a group of scientists and experts with ties to governmental and non-governmental agencies, chemical and pharmaceutical companies, and academia that have banded together to promote the use of what are known as "evidence-based approaches" in toxicology. The discipline of evidence-based toxicology (EBT) is a process for transparently, consistently, and objectively assessing available scientific evidence in order to answer questions in toxicology. EBT has the potential to address concerns in the toxicological community about the limitations of current approaches. These include concerns related to transparency in decision making, synthesis of different types of evidence, and the assessment of bias and credibility. The evidence-based methods and approaches now being proposed for toxicology are widely used in medicine, which is the basis for their nomenclature. The need to improve how the performance of toxicological test methods is assessed was the main impetus for translating these tools to toxicology.
The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, abbreviated BfR, is a body under public law of the German federal government with full legal capacity. The institute comes under the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and has the task of providing scientific advice to the federal government on issues relating to food safety, product safety, chemical safety, contaminants in the food chain, animal protection and consumer health protection. Further technical supervision is performed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and the Federal Ministry of Transport.
The Dose That Makes the Poison: A Plain Language Guide to Toxicology is a book originally written by M. Alice Ottoboni and published in 1984 by Vincente Books to help laypeople understand what she considered to be an unfounded fear of synthetic chemicals. A second edition was published in 1991 and a third, revised by Patricia Frank, was released in 2011.
Joseph F. Holson, an American scientist, business executive, and educator in the disciplines of toxicology and product development, served as President of WIL Research Laboratories for 20 years (1988-2008). He is known for his contributions to the fields of developmental and reproductive toxicology (DART), pharmacokinetics, and risk assessment, including extensive experience with study design, data interpretation, and interspecies extrapolation of health effects data. He has served in numerous U.S. EPA/FDA advisory committees and as an expert toxicology witness. He was elected to two National Academy of Sciences toxicology committees. Dr. Holson is an editor and author of the textbook Regulatory Toxicology and an author of two significant chapters in the textbook Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology: A Practical Approach, Second Edition. Two of his peer-reviewed articles were recognized by the Risk Assessment Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology as the Outstanding Published Papers Demonstrating an Application of Risk Assessment. He is the first author to receive this award in consecutive years for publications produced with two separate sets of coauthors.
Michael L. Dourson is an American toxicologist and Director of Science at the nonprofit organization, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment. He was formerly a senior advisor to the Administrator of EPA, and prior to that, a professor at the Risk Science Center at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Prior to joining the University of Cincinnati, he was founder and president of the nonprofit Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment. Earlier in his career, he was employed by the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office, among other assignments.