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Toxicity



Toxicity

Toxicity is defined as an adverse reaction caused by a compound. This can vary from feeling sick, vomiting, having a slight headache to a raging migraine, having tinnitus or suffering from vertigo, feeling agressive to maniacal or homicidal, having depression to feeling suicidal. It can cause dermatitis or the developement of spots in a particular area or all over the body. The spots could be small and insignificant, or large exuding ones which are very itchy. Other symptoms can include feeling faint, having palpitations or blackouts, raised or lowered blood pressure etc.

LD50

The usual terms for expressing the LD50 are in units of mass of substance per mass of body mass, such as grams of substance per kilogram of body mass. Stating it this way allows the relative toxicity of different substances to be compared, and allows one to scale for the different size of the animals exposed (although toxicity does not always scale simply with body mass). Typically, the LD50 of a substance is measured in milligrams. The choice of 50% lethality as a benchmark avoids the potential for ambiguity of making measurements in the extremes, and reduces the amount of testing required. However, this also means that LD50 is not the lethal dose for all subjects; some may be killed by much less, while others survive doses far higher than the LD50.

Lethal dosage often varies depending on the method of administration; for instance, many substances are less toxic when taken by mouth than when intravenously administered. For this reason, LD50 figures are often qualified with the mode of administration, e.g. "LD50 (oral)."

Any LD50 value over 5g/Kg is considered to be non-toxic, and values of 1 - 5g/Kg are relatively safe. The LD50 is however only a relative value of toxicity and it does not indicate long term toxicity, teratogenicity or carcinogenicity.

N.B. Animal-rights and animal-welfare groups, such as Animal Rights International, have campaigned against LD50 testing on animals in particular as, in the case of some substances. Several countries, including the UK, have taken steps to ban the oral LD50, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) abolished the requirement for the oral test in 2001. Unfortunately none of the alternative toxicity tests are generally available for comparatives.

Long-term

Long-term effects can manifest themselves one to thirty years after a person has been subjected to small doses of chemicals. This is due to an accumulation of the chemical over a long period of time usually in a target organ or in the fat deposits around the body. Stress initiated by bereavement, divorce or losing weight, can mobilise the chemical in large doses and cause toxic manifestations.

Teratogenic

Teratogenic effects are seen only in the next generation, the mother or father having had no toxic symptoms after exposure to the chemical. The offspring, however, can be born deformed or limbless, or with defective internal organs which have not fully developed.

Carcinogenic

Carcinogenic effects are often seen as part of long term usage of chemicals. It may be due to direct mutation of some cells or the production of a carcinogenic effect via a co-carcinogen etc.

Phototoxicity

Photosensitization is when the skin becomes abnormally sensitive to sunlight or ultraviolet radiation and tans very rapidly. Exposure to sunlight or UV light eg. sunbeds, following skin application of Bergamot and other expressed citrus oils causes pigmentation of the skin (berlogue dermatitis) and/or burning. This is caused by the furocoumarin bergaptene (furanocoumarin bergapten) in the oil and the degree of phototoxicity is directly related to the percentage of these chemicals in the oil. There is a natural progression of severity from Bergamot > Lime > Bitter Orange > Lemon > Grapefruit > Sweet Orange > Tangerine > Mandarin > Tangelo. When the level of furocoumarins is decreased to below 0.0075%. phototoxicity is avoided. Therefore from sweet orange onwards there is virtually no danger of phototoxicity. However this does not take into account the idiosyncracies of different individuals.


        
        
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