Occupational Toxicology

Occupational toxicology is concerned with the harmful effects of agents that may be encountered by workers during the course of their employment. The harmful effects may be in the workers themselves, or in experimental animals, or other test systems used to define and/or understand the toxicity of the agent of interest. The term ‘occupational’ is used in preference to ‘industrial’ because the latter may have the connotation of chemical exposure in factories; this would not necessarily include work such as farming, with potential exposure to pesticides or office work, with issues such as photocopiers in enclosed spaces.