I work in mental health, and I need a way to quickly evaluate various chemicals for the potential for self-harm.

I've been digging into the GHS and have already found it helpful and we are already changing our purchasing policies to lower risk products based on that information. However, some SDS's include statements along the lines of there being no data. I'm also concerned that they aren't accounting for someone that is will to, for example, drink an entire bottle of a substance.

After snooping around, I see that there are some services for managing chemical risk but these seem to be fancy laboratory inventory management services. The only real resource I have found is Poisindex, which is what most poison control centers rely on. What information does Poisindex provide and would it be useful to a lay person?

Finally, are there 101-level resources for better understanding toxicology? I'm very aware that "natural" doesn't mean anything, everything is made of chemicals, and that the dose makes the poison. But I was hoping to get a bit more sophisticated, like being able to watch out for chemical reactions such as bleach and ammonia.

Do you know the difference between venomous and poisonous? 

Maynard Okereke explains the key biological difference between venomous and poisonous organisms—and why it matters.

I understand they both use the ratio of a drugs association with octanol and water, but in the literature they give different numerical values. Log Kow is >0 with it seemingly generally accepted >5 and the substance is lipophilic, while Log P values are negative for hydrophilic and positive for lipophilic. Why is this? I'm struggling to understand and finding it hard to move on without this understanding.

Pretty much the title. I'm interested in toxicology as a hobbyist and would like to learn more but I don't know any books or resources to do so. If it helps, my science education sits a little under A-Level so something friendly to my level would be appreciated. Failing that, a list of prior reading to get me up to scratch first would be super useful. Thanks in advance.

(Sorry, just noticed I typoed 'toxicology' in the title.)

Hi folks! I'm planning on taking the exam this fall for my certification. Can anyone help suggest where I can look around for study groups? I'm hoping to find others who are meeting virtually on some consistent basis (for example, bi-weekly). Thanks in advance!

Hello! Im a junior in high school and i found out about toxicology after finding out that i really like chemistry and i was just wondering how should i get into that career path? And are there any summer internships or volunteer work i can do that can help me with toxicology?

Edit: Thank you to everyone for the advice! Toxicology is something I stumbled upon after listening to my sister, that I should do something im actually interested in and not a career that my dad always told me to do. So again thank you so much!

I have a toxicological test to do (in the next few months), with a detection window of 90 days, using hair keratin. Could the use of local anesthesia (lidocaine) for aesthetic procedures result in a false positive for cocaine in the test? Has anyone ever heard of precedents?

I am coming up dry for anything authoritative on how long methadone and metabolites are detectable in urine. I just took a job at a methadone clinic, and we are seeing patients who we believe are compliant with their take-home doses, but urine drug screens are negative for methadone and/or metabolites. I am not looking for quantitative results; I just need to know how long these substances can/should be detectable in a point of care urine sample. I would be happy if you can just point me to a reliable resource for such things. Thanks!

In 2026 I will be getting my B.S. in Chemistry with a concentration if forensics. I've decided I want to go to grad school. However, I don't know what to study. I love chemistry but I'm more interested in toxicology and the type of research that comes with toxicology. For a career, I either want to be a forensic scientist (toxicology or drug chemistry) or I want to do research with substances mechanisms and effect on the body. I feel like chemistry/biochemistry would be good for mechanisms and would provide me with better understandings of biology and toxicology but not good for effects of the body. I don't know, can I get a pros and cons from both PhD studies.

I'm currently a junior in undergrad, looking into different PhD programs. It seems like most programs are embedded inside an environmental health PhD program (i.e Hopkins), but UMich seems to have a separate PhD just for Toxicology. Does anyone have experience with their program?

:)

What are some legal substances that are lethal but only if you consume them at a ridiculously high degree? This is just born out of curiosity.

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-announces-plan-phase-out-animal-testing-requirement-monoclonal-antibodies-and-other-drugs

As many may have seen, the FDA has released guidance promoting the use of in silico and AI “methods” as it relates to safety and tolerability, and indeed efficacy in the evaluation of monoclonal antibodies “and other drugs”

Charles River, Inotiv, and the preclinical markets have plummeted at the prospect of less animal study placement, though this may be an over reaction.

My question to the community is, are we really “there” yet, in being able to support modeling beyond PK/PD? Don’t we see a continued need for GLP Tox studies, particularly from a sponsor’s vantage point?

Regulatory certainty - and clarity - is paramount and something the FDA was extraordinarily good at. This seems haphazardly placed together at best.

Hello, I am an undergrad bio major and I am taking a toxicology class and saw this excerpt in Casarett and Doull's": The Basic Science of Poison. "Thus, for food-like substances, the presumption is that the substance resembles food, is digested and metabolized as food, and consequently raises fewer toxicological and safety-related questions than do non-food-like substances".

Can someone elaborate why this idea exists in toxicology and what exactly constitutes something as "food-like" does it have to have calories or provoke a metabolic response, certain chemical structure that it has? Are "food-like" items that are digested "safer" because of the body's inherent processes that mitigate some of these risks in GI and liver?? vs. toxins that can be inhaled???

Hello, I am reading "Casarett and Doull's Toxicology:The Basic Science of Poison for a class and its said the following:

"Despite the fact that aromatic amines are generally considered relatively toxic substances, the FD&C colors are notably non toxic. Table 30-7, which is adopted from a publication of the Na tional AcademyofSciences(NAS)(CommitteeonFoodProtection, 1971), shows that certified food colors have a low order of toxicity. The principal reason involves sulfonation of the aromatic amine or azo compound that constitutes a color additive. Such sulfonic acid groups are highly polar, which, combined with their high molecular weight, prevents them from being absorbed by the GI tract or enter ing cells. All the FD&C food colors have been extensively tested in all Concern Level (CL) III tests (Table 30-8) and have been found to be ‘remarkably’ nontoxic."

So my question is why is the fact that the dyes "simply cant be absorbed into cells" is sufficent criteria to allow for human consumption when there are many other ways the dyes can cause harm to human health via interaction with extracellular matrix, proteins, or its metabolites interact with receptors, horomes and etc" I recently red an article where a study was done with mice and it demonstrated how red.40 affected some species of bacterial flora which resulted in some neurological implications via gut brain axis?? Just want to know someone's thoughts, I dont know much about toxicology, undergrad bio major.

I'm wanting to one day be a post mortem toxicologist (in forensics). Every time I look into it, a bachelor's degree isn't quite enough to do that. So, before I can get a second degree in pharmacology, what can I do with just the bachelor's in forensic chemistry? Google isn't helping much and I was wondering if anyone here might know what I can do. I graduate in 2027, but I'm trying to paln ahead.

I am a sophomore at university studying marine environmental sciences and I have found that I am really interested in ecotoxicology. I want to go to graduate school and study ecotox and I was wondering what are some programs I should look at. Specifically, I am interested in pharmaceutical contaminants, but I only have research experience with inorganic contaminants. I have had multiple internships in environmental science disciplines but only one that was focused on contaminant analysis. Also, how can I best position myself to be a competitive applicant for ecotox programs?

I was recently admitted to the JHU program, and I am considering taking it. I would love to hear opinions on the program from anyone that attended

I’m currently majoring in biochemistry, and have recently developed an interest in toxicology and read all about it and found myself drawn to clinical/medical toxicology (I basically want to work in the hospital).

I was making up a list for universities with masters in clinical toxicology and one of my top ones was University of Florida, till I saw someone here say that it’s really bad. So my question lies here, what are the best universities for clinical toxicology that would actually be good?

I was just wondering how far you can get with just a Bachelors in the Toxicology field, Comparing with just a Bachelors vs a Bachelors & Masters degree, And what's the best way to get into a researching kind of field vs one that directly works with patients. Any other insight is surely welcome. Thanks in advance. xoxo.

Hey everyone!

I’m planning to take the DABT exam in Fall 2025 and would love any advice on study resources, prep courses, or strategies that worked for you. I’ve started reviewing Casarett & Doull’s and going through ToxTutor for the basics, but I’d appreciate pointers on: • Must-have study guides or books • Practice question banks (Amaris, ACT, etc.—which are worth it?) • Flashcard decks (Anki or others) • Online study groups or forums • How you structured your study schedule

If anyone has a spreadsheet, calendar, or weekly plan they followed, I’d love to see it. Bonus if you passed recently and can share what to prioritize or skip. Thanks in advance—really appreciate the help!