Science Question

Winter 2022Writing Assignment 1 – Toxicity Assessment
Assignment Outline
Environmental toxicology and risk assessment is all about chemicals and their effects on people
and the environment around us. Since the dose makes the poison, it is often useful to know
where the chemical comes from, how we might be exposed, and what the effects might be. You
will be focussing on this last issue.
Each student will be assigned a chemical substance. Your task is to become an expert on that
chemical or group of chemicals and then provide a short (2 page) summary of its toxicological
properties that a friend, colleague, family member, or even your prof can understand. I would
expect that you can get the vast majority of your information from the internet. Although
Wikipedia can be fairly thorough in its presentation of certain subjects, please … please use
more than one source. Three is actually the minimum.
For the chemical or group of chemicals that you have been assigned, I would like you to try to
include the following in your write-up.
1. What is it?
2. How is it toxic to people? In other words, what is its mode of toxicity and what are some
of the effects? Is it a carcinogen or a non-carcinogen? If the latter, explain how the
chemical effects a persons health. Keep this part simple, as if explaining it to a layperson.
3. Finally, and this is the important part, provide the available human health exposure limits.
These might include a TRV (in mg/kg bw-day) or cancer slope factor. You might also
find an array of acceptable air concentration or concentration in soil or drinking water.
You will need to summarize the important values in a table. Focus on Canadian
standards and guidelines but you might have to look at the US EPA or WHO.
If you do generate a table, be sure to include a very brief paragraph as an introduction to
the table.
4. End with a brief summary of the tabled values.
Remember, you are telling a story with a beginning, middle and end. Hopefully, it is something
that you find interesting. You are welcome to include pictures and/or diagrams when explaining
what your chemical is but you still need 1 to 2 pages of text.
Note: Please use the same letter size (12 pt) and single spaced.