Introduction

This definition of ecotoxicology can be further expanded as the science of predicting effects of potentially toxic agents on natural ecosystems and on nontarget species. Ecotoxicology has not generally included the fields of industrial and human health toxicology or domestic animal and agricultural crop toxicology, which are not part of natural ecosystems, but are rather imposed upon them. Yet there is a growing belief by some that humanity and its artifacts should be regarded as components of natural systems, not apart from them. More recently, Newman has defined ecotoxicology as the science of contaminants in the biosphere and their effects on constituents of the biosphere, which includes humans.