ABSTRACT
Toxicity is an inherent property of a toxic substance; however, the nature and extent of the toxic manifestations in an organism that is exposed to the substance depend on a variety of factors. The obvious ones are the dose of the substance and duration of exposure. However, they also include less obvious host factors such as the species and strain of the animal, gender and age, nutritional and hormonal status as well as the presence of medical conditions such as hypertension or compromised function as in AIDS. Various environmental (physical and social) factors also play a part. In addition, the toxic effect of a chemical may be infl uenced by simultaneous, concurrent, or prior exposure to other chemicals.
