Toxicology: The basic science for human well-being and environmental health

[ Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher, stated back around 350 CE that í ú о ú , hich means that without the basics it is impossible to live and ive well. My own belief, as a toxicologist with more than 30 years f experience in the field, is that the science of toxicology and its ffect on people and the environment is truly such a basic discipline, oth for our existence, as well as for our well-being [1]. Toxicology, as well as other related sciences, is at a turning oint, where vast diversity of knowledge will be taken into account egarding exposure to harmful factors and their induced diseases. herefore, it is essential to strengthen the science of toxicology as n academic discipline, thus reminding governments and the public f the necessity of toxicology in protecting the health of consumers, orkers, the general population and the environment [2]. We live in an extraordinary age. These are times of stunning hanges in social organization and economic well-being. Many ountries are struggling under the weight of what is perhaps the orst economic recession in recent memory, while Europe faces great wave of immigration. Nonetheless, today we are far better quipped to take on the challenges we face than ever before. Toxiology provides the means to come up with cures for diseases and ew sources of energy, and help us build healthier, more successful ocieties [1,3]. The new Editor-in-Chief has a special interest in low-dose, longerm effects from combined exposures. This is a new challenge or the Toxicology of the 21st century as many recent studies ave shown correlations between long-term exposure to xenobitics and chronic diseases, even of very low doses, but none have rovided until now a mechanistic interpretation of any observed ffect nor have outcomes been linked with exposure to a chemical ixture. He supports the necessity for new experimental methodlogies, which seek to provide at the same time multiple answers o multiple questions related to current concerns about mixtures f chemicals from many different sources at doses around or well elow the regulatory limits, to which the general population is xposed daily. If the hypothesis of an increased cumulative risk rom simultaneous exposures to chemicals around regulatory levls will be proven, that could be the starting point for passing rom single-compound risk assessment to the era of cumulative risk ssessment at low-doses that represent realistic exposures. Based n this idea, all issues that are related to these types of research ill be very welcome for the journal in addition to other issues of esearch broadly relevant to toxicology [4,5]. The medium is the message. Scientific journals represent the ost vital means for disseminating research findings. The fact that [