Your Health

Ten Million Times A Day

Posted 1/7/2011

Better medicines, safer products and improved government regulations can all come from properly applied toxicology research.

(NAPSI) - Each day, Americans of every stripe trek to their pharmacy to get prescriptions filled. In fact, in 2010 alone, more than 3.6 billion prescriptions, or 10 million per day, were filled in the United States.

As astonishing as the sheer numbers seem, even more astounding is the fact that the vast majority of medicines actually did what the doctor hoped without causing harm to the patient. How fortunate that we seldom wonder about the safety of the medicines we ingest, inhale or rub on our skins.

Much of the safety of our medicinal drug supply is traceable to a science called toxicology. Toxicology’s definition conjures up dark visions of Lucrezia Borgia, deadly intrigue and poison arrows. But the modern practitioners of toxicology are men and women who devote their careers to the study of how chemicals interact with living systems.

Toxicologists work to ensure that the drugs, food additives, pesticides and the thousands of other synthetic and naturally occurring chemicals we use are safe for humans, animals and the environment.

For more information about the science of toxicology, go to www.toxicology.org.