General Principles of Toxicology

Toxicity is the intrinsic capacity of a chemical agent to affect an organism adversely.

Xenobiotics is a term for “foreign substances”, that is, foreign to the organism. Its opposite is endogenous compounds. Xenobiotics include drugs, industrial chemicals, naturally occurring poisons and environmental pollutants.

Hazard is the potential for the toxicity to be realized in a specific setting

Introduction to Pesticides

Pesticides are chemical substances that are meant to kill pests. In general, a pesticide is a chemical or a biological agent such as a virus, bacterium, antimicrobial, or disinfectant that deters, incapacitates, kills, pests.

This use of pesticides is so common that the term pesticide is often treated as synonymous with plant protection product. It is commonly used to