The extent to which a chemical compound or a mixture of chemicals might harm an organism is known as toxicity. Toxicity can relate to the effect on a whole organism, such as bacteria, animal, or plant, as well as a structure of the organism, including a cell (cytotoxicity) or an organ, such as the liver (hepatotoxicity). Sometimes, toxicity can spread to a cluster of cells or other organs. In everyday usage, the term is frequently used interchangeably with poisoning. This paper will discuss more types of toxicity in chemistry with illustrative examples.
What is toxicity?
There is a basic myth about toxicology – toxicant effects are dose-dependent; water can cause water intoxication if consumed at too high a dose, yet even a highly toxic chemical like snake venom has a dose below which no toxic effect can be detected. However, that’s not true. If a substance is toxic, it can cause problems even when present in a small quantity. Furthermore, because toxicity is species-specific, the cross-species study is difficult. As a result, animal testing is being phased out in favour of newer paradigms and measurements that maintain the idea of toxicity endpoints.
The effects of toxicity on the target can be measured (organ, organism, tissue, or cell). Because people respond differently to a hazardous substance, several metrics are frequently employed to link the odds of an event for a specific individual in a community. The LD50 is one such metric. When no data is available, predictions are based on similar hazardous substances or exposures in related organisms. Then “safety factors” are applied to account for data and assessment process uncertainty.
For example, suppose a toxic substance dose is safe for a research lab rat. In that case, one might presume that one-tenth of that dose is safe for a human, enabling a security factor of 10 to account for cross-species separation between different mammals.
What are the types of toxicity and toxicity examples?
Chemical, physical, radiation, biological, and behavioural toxicity are the five types of toxic entities:
In a broad sense, disease-causing microbes and parasites are poisonous, although they are called pathogens instead of toxicants. Since the ‘threshold dose’ for infections can be a single organism, measuring their biological toxicity can be tricky. For example, one virus, bacteria, or worm can proliferate and generate a serious infection. The intrinsic toxicity is measured by the host’s capacity to counteract back to the toxins through immune power. In other cases, such as cholera, a non-living chemical released by the organism causes the disease instead of the organism itself.
Radiation can be harmful to living things. The unpleasant consequences of essentially therapeutic amounts of medicine clinically indicated for a certain disease are behavioural toxicity. For example, anticholinergic, dopaminergic, and alpha-adrenergic blockade have only a few unfavourable effects.
Physical toxicants are compounds that interact with biological processes owing to their physical characteristics. Coal dust, asbestos fibres, and sharply split silicon dioxide are all examples of substances that can be lethal if inhaled. Physical toxicity exists because corrosive substances degrade tissues, but they aren’t physically dangerous until they interfere with biological activity. For example, when you don’t drink too much water, your kidneys won’t be able to filter blood from urea, which is one of the major toxins for human beings. Similarly, you will inhale carbon monoxide when you sleep in a closed room. When the gas molecules combine with haemoglobin, it forms carbamino-haemoglobin. This causes asphyxiation or toxicity of the blood.
What is the toxic chemical property?
Toxicity refers to how harmful a substance is to human health, a specific organ, another organism, or the environment. You can’t tell if a chemical is dangerous just by looking at it. The degree to which a material is poisonous varies on several factors like the chemical composition and its effect on humans. For example, this quality can only be detected and evaluated by introducing an organic system to a sample. A chemical reaction or series of reactions occurs as a result of exposure. Toxicology is the end outcome of the chemical alterations.
Matter has a wide range of chemical characteristics like toxicity, chemical resistance, flammability, and oxidation states.
Conclusion
Because each component can have different toxicity levels, it may combine to generate amplified or lessened effects, determining the toxicity of complex mixtures is more challenging than determining the toxicity of a single molecule. Cigarette smoke, gasoline, and industrial waste are examples of common combinations. Situations involving many types of toxicity, such as the discharge from a sewage treatment plant that contains both biological and chemical agents, are much more complicated.