Module 3: Toxicology - Section 2: Classification of hazardous substances
TOX 2.1: Overview

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

By the end of this module you should

  1. Have a schema for classifying hazardous chemicals.
  2. Be able to categorise any given substance in the four classification systems (physical character, chemical character, physiological effect and organ system).
You will encounter a little bit of organic chemistry in the chemical names. You will need to know the classification systemsin detail and you should be able to cite one example of each category within a given system.

ACTIVITIES:

  1. Read the note: "Making sense of all these chemicals."
  2. Review the lecture: "Classification of Hazardous Chemical Substances".

EXERCISES:

Do the attached exercise: "Classifying Hazardous Chemicals" as an interblock exercise.

REFERENCES:

  1. J. La Dou (ed.), Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2nd Edn., Chs. 28 (Chemicals) and 29 (Solvents), 30 (Plastics). (You are not expected to read these start to end, but the general introductions are worth reading, as well individual sections which capture your interest. I have found these chapters extremely useful in preparing lecture materials and I still refer to them for individual cases.)
  2. La Dou, Ch. 18 pp. 273-274 and Ch. 28, pp. 443-44 for hydrofluoric acid burns (in case you have to manage a case, or advise a casualty service on how to do so).



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Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology (Basic) by Profs Mohamed Jeebhay and Rodney Ehrlich, Health Sciences UCT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. Major contributors: Mohamed Jeebhay, Rodney Ehrlich, Jonny Myers, Leslie London, Sophie Kisting, Rajen Naidoo, Saloshni Naidoo. Source available from here. For any updates to the material, or more permissions beyond the scope of this license, please email healthoer@uct.ac.za or visit www.healthedu.uct.ac.za. Last updated Jan 2007.
Disclaimer note: Some resources and descriptions may be out-dated. For suggested updates and feedback, please contact healthoer@uct.ac.za.