Toxicological Pathways of Relevance to Medical Geology

Abstract

This article provides an overview of toxicological pathways that is important in studying the effects of the natural environment on human health (medical geology). The article is divided into four sections. The introduction defines medical geology and the role of toxicology in this discipline. The section on exposure pathways examines various ways in which toxins are mobilized within the geologic environment, and the toxic impacts of different exposure routes using various examples from medical geology. The section on metabolism and effects of xenobiotics examines how toxins are transported within the body and the ways in which xenobiotics affect metabolism and metabolism changes xenobiotics (making them more or less toxic), with special emphasis on the aryl hydrocarbon receptor pathway. The final section discusses toxicological approaches in medical geology, including methods for isolating xenobiotics from environmental samples for toxicological testing, the use of cell cultures and animal models in toxicological studies, and molecular biological methods of importance.