Toxicology and Pharmacology

Food Safety and Environmental Toxicology

Food safety is a discipline which describes preparation, handling and storage of food in ways that avoid foodborne illness. This involves a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards. Food safety includes the origins of food including the practices relating to food labelling, food additives, pesticide residues and food hygiene as well as policies on Biotechnology and food. Food can transmit disease from person to person as well as help as a growth medium for bacteria that can cause food poisoning. In developed countries there are sophisticated standards for food preparation, whereas in lesser developed countries the main issue is simply the availability of sufficient safe water, which is usually a critical item. Environmental toxicology is a field of science concerned with the study of the harmful effects of various physical, chemical and biological agents on living organisms. Harmful effects of biological and chemical agents can include toxicants from pesticides, pollutants, fertilizers and insecticides all of which can impact an organism and its population through shifts in species diversity and abundance. Living organisms can be exposed to Toxicants at various stages of their life cycle. The amount of toxicity can vary depending on where the organism is found within its food web.