ABSTRACT
Neurotoxicology is a discipline that studies the effects of chemical compounds on the nervous system. Its two major objectives are the evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of neurological dysfunctions caused by toxic agents in humans, and the study of how neurotoxic compounds cause their effects. The clinical evaluation of individual workers affected by exposure to neurotoxic agents in the workplace is performed by specially trained physicians with the aid of other personnel including neuropsychologists, analytical chemists, and radiologists. Environmental and occupational physicians evaluate, diagnose, and treat people affected by exposure to toxic substances in the environment and the workplace. The clinical examination may take place in many different places, including private offices, private and publicly owned hospitals, occupational clinics in major hospitals, medical facilities attached to industrial complexes, forensic clinics, and under field conditions. Neuropathological observations at the gross morphological, cellular, and molecular levels for determining possible toxic causation are one of the pillars of modern environmental and occupational neurotoxicology.
