Toxicological Testing Handbook: Principles, Applications, and Data Implementation

BioReliance Corporation, Rockville, MD. Text and reference provides essential data on issues such as species selection, dose level and dosing regimens, animal models, routes of exposure, proper statistical evaluation, fulfillment of regulatory requirements, data interpretation, and adherence to good laboratory practices.

Toxicology testing requirements are varied and often driven by regulatory requirements. Accordingly, this text "provides practical guidance to persons responsible for developing toxicology data, evaluating results from toxicology studies, and performing risk assessments." The audience for this book is mixed and includes drug development laboratories, biotechnology companies, consulting toxicologists and environmental health scientists, and regulators. The first ten chapters pertain to specific subdisciplines of toxicology and each one addresses issues such as animal testing, dose regimens, exposure routes, and methods of statistical analysis. The final three chapters discuss the future of toxicology testing and examine new techniques, approaches in molecular biology, the use of transgenic animals, and health risk assessment. This book is best suited to those establishing toxicological data (from laboratory testing, medical monitoring, etc.) and less valuable for those involved in risk assessment. Although similar information can be found in popular texts such as A. Wallace Hayes' Principles & Methods of Toxicology (4th edition, Taylor & Francis, 2001) and Louis J. Casarett's Casarett & Doull's Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons (5th edition, McGraw-Hill, 1996) this book is timely in scope and broad enough in coverage to provide basic information about toxicology testing. It would be a suitable addition to libraries supporting occupational and environmental health, toxicology, epidemiology and other students in the health sciences.Reviewer: Dale A. Stirling, Information Specialist, Intertox, Seattle, WA, dastirling@intertox.com Copyright 2001 E-Stream Reviews