Quantification of Toxic Chemicals in Selected Human Populations

Identification and quantification of toxic chemicals by use of Escherichia coli carrying lux genes fused to stress promoters.

The luxCDABE bioluminescence genes of the Vibrio fischeri lux system have been used as a reporter system for different stress and regulatory promoters of Escherichia coli. Selected E. coli strains carrying lux genes fused to different promoters were exposed to various toxic chemicals, and the recorded luminescence was used for the characterization of the biologic signature of each compound. Ana...

Global Screening of Human Cord Blood Proteomes for Biomarkers of Toxic Exposure and Effect

BACKGROUND Exposures of pregnant women to natural and manmade chemicals can lead to negative health effects in the baby, ranging from low birth weight to developmental defects. In some cases, diseases were postulated to have their basis in toxic exposure in utero or in early childhood. Therefore, an understanding of fetal responses to environmental exposures is essential. To that end, cord bloo...

Environmental and Ecological Extra Challenges in Minority Populations; a Tale of Toxic Exposures among First Nation Populations

A New Classification System for the Actions of IRS Chemicals Traditionally Used For Malaria Control

Knowledge of how mosquitoes respond to insecticides is of paramount importance in understanding how an insecticide functions to prevent disease transmission. A suite of laboratory assays was used to quantitatively characterize mosquito responses to toxic, contact irritant, and non-contact spatial repellent actions of standard insecticides. Highly replicated tests of these compounds over a range...

Toxic chemicals: can what we don't know harm us?

The Chesapeake Bay Program began more than 20 years ago with assessments of a number of key areas, relying on measurements of habitats, plant and animal populations, and physical and chemical conditions. This approach used wildlife as indicators of Bay "health" and of potential threats to human health. The extent of toxic chemical contamination was one of the assessment endpoints in the origina...

Potential risk of exposure to selected xenobiotic residues and their fate in the food chain--part I: classification of xenobiotics.

Consumers are exposed to a diversity of chemicals in all areas of life. Air, water, soil and food are all unavoidable components of the human environment. Each of those elements influences the quality of human life, and each of them may be contaminated. We are exposed to toxic or potentially toxic compounds in many ways in our daily lives and toxicology is clearly a subject of great importance ...