ABSTRACT
A major drawback to seriously consider immunology as an important component of any hazard identification as well as in risk assessment evaluation, is the observation that many immunological assays, especially functional assays, provide heterogeneous results leading to ambiguous conclusions in a toxicologic study. This is due to a variety of reasons. Among them are factors, such as different test systems, strain and age of animals, and source of reagents. Indeed, even if many of these variables could be made uniform, heterogeneity of results might still be a problem if the methodologies themselves are not well validated and standardized. This book provides numerous examples in various contexts of xenobiotics that produce adverse effects on the immune system, thus having significant health implications for human and wildlife populations as well as for domestic animals. The results presented here are the conclusions of international harmonization
experiments performed by various teams of researchers with a special emphasis on the Canadian experience. Researchers unanimously believe in the importance of immunotoxicology, not only as a direct complement to toxicological studies but also for its contribution to understanding the mechanism of immunomodulation. Concurrently, researchers recognize the need for standardized approaches and methodologies in immunotoxicology.
