ABSTRACT
Environmental and occupational neurotoxicology is a multidisciplinary science dealing with the study of chemical compounds found in the environment or the workplace that have deleterious effects on the nervous system and behavior of humans. Bernardino Ramazzini was the founder of industrial medicine as we know it today. Ramazzini determined that a relationship exists between the worker’s health and his occupation such that the worker’s job could, under certain circumstances, be considered a disease-inducing agent. The Industrial Revolution, and the human health consequences it caused, were profoundly attacked. Mateo Jose Buenaventura Orfila, a Spanish physician who worked in the French Court of Louis XVIII, is considered to be the father of modern experimental toxicology. Restrictions, classifications, declassifications, and even destruction of documents by government agencies are at the present time creating a great deal of difficulty for professional historians.
