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History of Toxicology

Ronnie Frazer-Williams Mary Gulumian

South Africa

updated Apr 20, 2010 by Nick Thorp

Please help improve the WLT by reporting broken links and suggesting additional content and features by contacting the Country Correspondent or the WLT at Contact@wlt.org.

Country Correspondent

Mary Gulumian

Overview

<iframe width="850" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&msid=100266875946077246436.00047e292f322c193f1d8&ll=-30.069094,23.203125&spn=13.291013,37.353516&z=5&output=embed"></iframe><br /><small>View <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&msid=100266875946077246436.00047e292f322c193f1d8&ll=-30.069094,23.203125&spn=13.291013,37.353516&z=5&source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">South Africa</a> in a larger map</small> Legend: <img src="http://toxipedia.org/download/attachments/1871750/blue.JPG" width="20" height="15">= Government Agency, <img src="http://toxipedia.org/download/attachments/1871750/red.JPG" width="20" height="15">= NGO, <img src="http://www.toxipedia.org/download/attachments/5999808/green.jpg" width="20" height="15">= University, <img src="http://toxipedia.org/download/attachments/1871750/yellow.JPG" width="20" height="15">= Professional Society, <img src="http://www.toxipedia.org/download/attachments/5999808/purple.jpg" width="20" height="15">= Poison Control Center, <img src="http://www.toxipedia.org/download/attachments/5999808/twaste1.jpg" width="20" height="15">= Toxic Site.

Toxicology, as a distinct discipline, is not recognized in South Africa. It is taught at different universities as a subject in the overall syllabus within a number of scientific disciplines including Forensic Medicine, Pharmacology, Marine and Veterinary sciences, Environmental Health, and Occupational Hygiene. The level of toxicology taught in these syllabi may be basic and biased towards that particular sub-discipline. There is a need for these tertiary institutions to recognize Toxicology as a discipline in its own right and create opportunities to study and obtain higher degrees in one or more of the many sub-disciplines of toxicology.

The presence of toxicants in the environment, workplace and food products is increasingly being recognized in South Africa. The widespread use of biomass fuel and coal in South Africa as well as significant industrial activity has led to increased indoor and outdoor air pollution (Brent and Rogers 2002; Coetzee et al. 1986) with increased levels of harmful particulate matter (Engelbrecht et al. 2001; Naidoo and Chirkoot 2004). There is well-documented toxic metal contamination of soil and groundwater in the vicinity of industrial and mining sites (Grobler 1999; Oosthuizen and Ehrlich 2001). South Africa is also the largest user of pesticides in sub-Saharan Africa and rivers, wetlands and wildlife have been shown to be contaminated (Dalvie et al. 2003; Fatoki and Awofolu 2004; van Wyk et al. 2001). Traditional medicine is widely practiced in South Africa but the toxicity to humans and livestock of only a limited number of these herbal remedies has been investigated (Stewart et al. 2002). Unfortunately, there is a severe shortage of adequately trained professionals to carry out the much-needed basic and applied research: toxicology testing and risk assessment of the toxic substances associated with industrial, mining and other activities.

Against this background and with the support of the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX), the Toxicology Society of South Africa (TOXSA) was established in 2001 in Stellenbosch by some one hundred interested scientists to promote and advance the study and application of toxicology in South Africa. TOXSA was admitted as a full national member society of IUTOX in 2004, having complied with all criteria of membership. TOXSA will be the host of the 7th Congress of the Toxicology in Developing Countries (7CTDC) to be held in South Africa in 2009.

A version of this article was published in Information Resources in Toxicology, 4th Edition, Mary Gulumian, Copyright Elsevier (2009).


Government Agencies


Non-Government Organizations


Universities


Professional Societies


Poison Control Centers

  • Endangered Wildlife Trust
  • Poisons Information Centre, Department of Pharmacology
    University of the Free State
    Tel: +27-(0)51-4013134/3090
    Emergency Tel: +27 51 444 2134
    Fax: +27 51 444 1523
    Email: waluboa.md@mail.uovs.ac.za
  • Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital Poisons Information Service
    Department of Paediatrics and Child Health
    Rondebosch 7700
    Tel: (021) 689 5227
    Email: pic@ich.uct.ac.za
  • Stellenbosch University


Databases


National and International Programmes


Key Publications


Legal Links

Acts


Bills, Regulations and Guidelines


About South Africa


Multilateral Organization Contacts


Literature References from TOXLINE (South Africa)

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