ABSTRACT
A major responsibility of toxicologists, specialists in toxicity, is to determine what level of exposure to a given chemical can cause harm and what level is safe. A specific chemical can cause one or more of a variety of toxic effects. Toxic chemicals fall into such classes as systemic poisons, mutagens, carcinogens, teratogens, or behavioral toxins according to the nature of damage caused. One must understand these classes of toxicity and become familiar with the terminology associated with them. Often small amounts of toxin are bound, eliminated, or chemically altered rapidly, resulting in no observed toxic effect. When the dose of toxicant is sufficiendy high that the target organ is immediately damaged beyond its ability to function adequately, the person dies. Damage to reproductive potential is a special type of systemic toxicity. Here the target organ is the male or female reproductive system.
