What is a toxicologist?
A toxicologist studies the adverse effects of chemical agents on biological systems. The toxicologist performs studies to determine how easily a chemical enters an organism, how it behaves inside the organism, how rapidly it is removed from the organism, what cells are affected by the chemicals, and what cell functions are impaired. The professional activities of toxicologists fall into three main categories: descriptive, mechanistic, and regulatory. The descriptive toxicologist is concerned directly with toxicity testing. In this field she designs the appropriate toxicity tests in experimental animals or cell cultures to yield information that can be used to evaluate the risk posed to humans and the environment by exposure to specific chemicals. The mechanistic toxicologist is concerned with determining the mechanisms by which chemicals exert their toxic effects on living organisms. The regulatory toxicologist has the responsibility of deciding (on the basis of data provided by the de
