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    Excretion Is The Exit of A Substance

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    Ronna Mae
    This document discusses the movement and fate of toxins in the environment and within living organisms. It explains that toxins can enter organisms through ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact and then be metabolized, stored, or excreted. Toxins also move between environmental compartments like air, water, soil, and sediment through processes like precipitation, evaporation, and degradation. The toxicity of chemicals depends on factors like dose, route of entry, and an organism's sensitivity. The document also describes how bioaccumulation in individual organisms and biomagnification through food chains can concentrate toxins at higher levels in the food chain.

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    Excretion Is The Exit of A Substance

    Uploaded by

    Ronna Mae
    22 views2 pages
    This document discusses the movement and fate of toxins in the environment and within living organisms. It explains that toxins can enter organisms through ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact and then be metabolized, stored, or excreted. Toxins also move between environmental compartments like air, water, soil, and sediment through processes like precipitation, evaporation, and degradation. The toxicity of chemicals depends on factors like dose, route of entry, and an organism's sensitivity. The document also describes how bioaccumulation in individual organisms and biomagnification through food chains can concentrate toxins at higher levels in the food chain.

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    Toxicology Copy

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    This document discusses the movement and fate of toxins in the environment and within living organisms. It explains that toxins can enter organisms through ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact and then be metabolized, stored, or excreted. Toxins also move between environmental compartments like air, water, soil, and sediment through processes like precipitation, evaporation, and degradation. The toxicity of chemicals depends on factors like dose, route of entry, and an organism's sensitivity. The document also describes how bioaccumulation in individual organisms and biomagnification through food chains can concentrate toxins at higher levels in the food chain.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    22 views2 pages

    Excretion Is The Exit of A Substance

    Uploaded by

    Ronna Mae
    This document discusses the movement and fate of toxins in the environment and within living organisms. It explains that toxins can enter organisms through ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact and then be metabolized, stored, or excreted. Toxins also move between environmental compartments like air, water, soil, and sediment through processes like precipitation, evaporation, and degradation. The toxicity of chemicals depends on factors like dose, route of entry, and an organism's sensitivity. The document also describes how bioaccumulation in individual organisms and biomagnification through food chains can concentrate toxins at higher levels in the food chain.

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    AIR

    Photolysis,
    oxidation,
    precipitation

    SOURCE
    Industry,
    agriculture,
    domestic, etc
    BIOTA
    Metabolism,
    storage,
    excretion

    SOIL &
    SEDIMENT
    Photolysis &
    metabolism,
    evaporation

    Excretion is the exit of a substance


    and its biotransformation products
    from the organism. Excretion in urine
    and bile. The kidneys are the most
    important excretory organs.

    Toxins also move directly from


    soil and sediment.

    WATER
    Hydrolysis, oxidation,
    microbial,
    degradation,
    evaporation,
    sedimentation

    Metabolism is a word often used


    interchangeably with
    biotransformation. It denotes chemical
    breakdown or synthesis reactions
    catalyzed by enzymes in the body.
    Nutrients from food, endogenous
    compounds, and xenobiotics are all
    metabolized in the body.

    SOLUBILITY
    WATER soluble - the ability of a chemical to dissolve in water. Usually, compounds that are highly water
    soluble have a low potential to bioaccumulate and do not leave water readily to enter the cells of an
    organism.
    OIL or fat soluble - chemicals pass into organism's cells through the fatty layer of cell membranes more
    easily than water-soluble chemicals. Once inside the organism, these chemicals may move through
    numerous membranes until they are stored in fatty tissues and begin to accumulate.

    TOXICOLOGY- study of adverse affects of chemicals in living organisms.


    Factors Affecting TOXICITY:
    TOXICITY- degree to which a substance can damage organism.
    Types of Toxicity:
    a. CHEMICAL TOXICANTS- inorganic substances (lead, mercury, hydrofluoric acid, chlorine gas)
    Organic compounds (methyl alcohol, medications, poisons from living things)
    b. BIOLOGICAL - include bacteria and viruses that can induce disease in living organisms.
    c. PHYSICAL- substances that, due to their physical nature, interfere with biological processes
    (coal dust, asbestos fibers)
    1. DOSE concentration of volume of exposure. Dose refers to the concentration or amount of a
    substance inside an exposed person or organism.
    2. ROUTE OF ENTRY rate and site of exposure. Whether the toxin is applied to the skin, ingested,
    inhaled or injected.
    Two major reasons are differences in absorption and distribution within the body. For example:
    ingested chemicals, when absorbed from the intestine, distribute first to the liver and
    may be immediately detoxified

    inhaled toxicants immediately enter the general blood circulation and can distribute
    throughout the body prior to being detoxified by the liver
    3. TIMING OF EXPOSURE time of day, season, year. Brief encounter or long term. Exposure
    refers to the concentrations or amount of a substance presented to individuals or populations
    amounts found in specific volumes of air or water, or in masses of soil.
    4. SENSITIVITY OF ORGANISM Target organ is the primary or most sensitive organ affected after
    exposure. The same chemical entering the body by different routes of exposure dose, dose rate,
    sex and species may affect different target organs. Interaction between chemicals, or between
    chemicals and other factors may affect different target organs as well.

    EXPOSURE & SUSCEPTABILITY DETERMINE HOW WE RESPOND


    People are exposed to numerous toxicants present in the work and living environment, which can
    penetrate into the human organism by three main portals of entry:

    via the respiratory tract by inhalation of polluted air


    via the gastrointestinal tract by ingestion of contaminated food, water and drinks
    through the skin by dermal, cutaneous penetration.

    BIOACCUMULATION & BIOMAGNIFICATION


    The effects of toxins also are magnified in the environment through food webs.
    BIOACCUMULATION
    Bioaccumulation begins when a chemical passes from the environment into an organism's cells. Uptake
    is a complex process which is still not fully understood. Scientists have learned that chemicals tend to
    move, or diffuse, passively from a place of high concentration to one of low concentration.
    Bioaccumulation is a normal and essential process for the growth and nurturing of organisms. All
    animals, including humans, daily bioaccumulate many vital nutrients, such as vitamins A,D and K, trace
    minerals, and essential fats and amino acids. What concerns toxicologists is the bioaccumulation of
    substances to levels in the body that can cause harm. Because bioaccumulation is the net result of the
    interaction of uptake, storage and elimination of a chemical.
    BIOMAGNIFICATION
    Biomagnification describes a process that results in the accumulation of a chemical in an organism at
    higher levels than are found in its food. It occurs when a chemical becomes more and more
    concentrated as it moves up through a food chain -- the dietary linkages between single-celled plants
    and increasingly larger animal species. Biomagnification is illustrated by a study of DDT

    (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) which showed that where soil levels were 10 parts per
    million (ppm), DDT reached a concentration of 141 ppm in earthworms and 444 ppsm in robins.
    Organisms lower on the food chain take up and store toxins from the environment. They are eaten by
    larger predators, who are eaten, in turn, by even larger predators. The highest members of the food
    chain can accumulate very high levels of the toxin. Through biomagnification, the concentration of a
    chemical in the animal at the top of the food chain may be high enough to cause death or adverse
    effects on behavior, reproduction, or disease resistance and thus endanger that species, even when
    levels in the water, air, or soil are low.
    * DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), an organochlorine that was widely used as an insecticide
    during World War II to protect soldiers from malaria carried by mosquitoes. Due to the low cost and low
    toxicity to mammals, the widespread use of DDT for agricultural and commercial motives started around
    1940. However, the over-use of DDT leads to insect tolerance to the chemical. It was also discovered
    that DDT had a high toxicity to fish. DDT was banned in the US by 1973 because of building evidence
    that DDTs stable structure, high fat solubility, and low rate of metabolism, caused it to bioaccumulate in
    animals.

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