INTEGRATED COURSE IN TOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2021/2022
- Teacher
- STEFANIA MERIGHI
- Credits
- 12
- Curriculum
- BIOTECNOLOGIE PER L'AMBIENTE
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
Training objectives
- PHARMACOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY Educational objective of the Pharmacology and Environmental Toxicology course provides students with the basic knowledge necessary to understand and evaluate the toxicological risk of environmental contaminants on organisms , populations , communities and ecosystems. To this end, particular emphasis will be addressed on environmental and biological indicators to analyze the acute and chronic effects of pollutants and xenobioti, present in various environmental media (e.g. water, soil, air, sediments), in food and industrial products, on the biosphere. It will be studied the toxicological profile and mechanism of action of anthropogenic and biogenic substances, that are responsible for environmental pollution and not easily transformed by natural processes (i.e. photochemical oxidation, biological processes) in non-toxic substances.
The course aims to offer students an overview as complete as possible of how environmental damage is often irreversible and how changes of existing life balance between plants and creatures can be the causes of a reduced quality of life and the onset of pathological conditions. In addition, they should be able to carry out assessments on rational basis of the peculiar and/or multidisciplinary issues related to the impact of some toxic substances have on the environment and living beings including humans.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
The course objective is the description of the main physical-chemical processes which characterize the different environmental spheres (hydrosphere, geosphere, atmosphere, biosphere), their mutual interconnection and the effect of antroposphere on other environmental spheres. In detail, the course aims to provide students the following knowledges:
- the main chemical species which characterize each environmental sphere and what are the reactions in which they are involved
- the natural cycles of the main chemical species within the various environmental spheres and among them
- the main categories of pollutants, their origin, transport phenomena, their impact on the environment and the final destination.
At the end of the course, the student will be able to:
- interpret the main environmental parameters
- discuss about the main environmental phenomena, causes and effects, chemical species involved, possible actions
- interpret the distribution of chemical species, also pollutants, between the environmental spheres based on their chemical-physical properties. Prerequisites
- PHARMACOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY
The following knowledge is required:
• General, Inorganic and Organic Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Fundamentals of General and Applied Ecology
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
It is necessary to have the basic knowledge of general, inorganic and organic chemistry, in particular:
- fundamentals of nomenclature in inorganic chemistry (e.g. salts, oxides, ...) and organic chemistry (e.g. alkanes, benzene, ...)
- principles and parameters involved in acid/base, oxidation-reduction and complexation reactions (e.g. pH, cell potential, …)
- basic understanding of the structural formula of the organic molecules (e.g. the benzene ring) and the main functional groups (e.g. carboxylic acid, amine, ...).
It is also necessary to have basic mathematical notions.
There aren't propaedeutic exams to this course. Course programme
- PHARMACOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY
The course includes 48 hours of classroom teaching.
General section: (28 hours)
Introduction to the course: pharmacology and toxicology. Research drug development. Differences in toxicology, environmental toxicology and ecotoxicology. General concepts of contaminant, polluting and xenobiota.
- Dissemination, distribution and effects of pollutants in the environment and organisms: Bioconcentration. Bioaccumulation. Biomagnification. Partition coefficients: Kow, Koc, KAW.
Bioaccumulation indicators. Biomarkers. Role of biomarkers in biomonitoring.
- Acute and chronic toxicity parameters and "endpoints" for the quantification and assessment of acute and chronic damage of pollutants (LC50, EC50, IC50, NOEC, LOEC). Concentration/response curve. Presentation of some acute and chronic aquatic toxicity assays (algae, Daphnia magna, Cerodaphnia dubia and bioluminescent bacteria). terrestrial toxicity assays (API).
Special section: (20 hours)
- Biotechnological drugs
Toxicokinetics of a xenobiotic in organisms: exposure, absorption, distribution, storage, metabolism and biotransformation, elimination. Interaction between toxic substances: additivity, synergism and antagonism.
- Toxicity mechanisms in various organs: neurotoxicity; teratogenicity; pulmonary toxicity.
- Toxicity induced by:
Pesticides
Pollution from industrial sources, and from drugs used by patients.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
The course forecasts 48 hours of frontal lectures, approximately divided as follows.
Introduction (2 hours):
Introductive principles of environmental chemistry. Interactions between environmental spheres and antroposphere. Main definitions. International conferences and summits focused on the environment protection.
Hydrosphere (14 hours):
The hydrological cycle. Types, properties and chemical components of water reservoirs (i. e. freshwaters, oceans, groundwaters). The role of water in the environment. Interaction between dissolved components and solid phases (bottom sediments or suspended particulate matter): calculation of the concentrations of dissolved species. Some phenomena of pollution: eutrophication and microplastics. Reactions of precipitation, complexation and oxidation-reduction: theoretical aspects, reactions between species involved and calculation of their concentrations.
Geosphere (4 hours):
Physical and structural features of the soil (structure, porosity, permeability, ...). Chemical composition and role of the main components (minerals, clays, humic substances) in determining the properties of a soil (i.e. cation exchange capacity, water retention, fertility).
Water Treatment processes (4 hours):
Classification of wastewaters, wastewater treatments, potabilization, other water treatments for specific applications.
Atmosphere (12 hours):
Chemical-physical features of the atmosphere. Electromagnetic radiation: solar radiation and energy balance on Earth. The greenhouse effec, the stratospheric ozone cycle, the photochemical smog, acid rains:
description of these phenomena, causes and effects, reactions between chemical species involved (natural and/or anthropic). The atmospheric particulate matter: formation mechanisms, stability in atmosphere, the main chemical components, effects on environment
Biogeochemical cycles (2 hours):
Interchange of the chemical species between all the environmental spheres, including anthroposphere. As example: the cycle of carbon, oxygen, phosphorus, nitrogen, sulfur.
Pollutants (9 hours):
The main classes of pollutants (metals, emerging contaminants, hydrocarbons, pesticides, dioxins and furans, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), their chemical-physical properties, emission sources, environmental dynamics
Remediation technologies of soils and groundwater (1 hour):
description, advantages and disadvantages, application. Didactic methods
- PHARMACOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY Lectures inline that will be made available to students
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
- presentation of the subjects using Powerpoint slides and multimedia resources
- carrying out of some application examples, which require some mathematical steps Learning assessment procedures
- PHARMACOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY
The level of achievement of previously indicated learning objectives is assessed through a written exam lasting 20 minutes. 16 questions will be formulated with multiple choice answers. Each question is worth 2 points if correct; wrong answer or no answer 0 points; limited to 16 correct answers match score of 30/30 cum laude; 9 correct answers match score of 18/30. In order to pass the exam, the student must obtain a minimum score of 18 out of 30.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
The aim of the exam is to verify at which level the learning objectives previously described have been acquired.
If the exams are allowed live, the exam will consist of a written test usually containing:
- 2 long open questions, with a maximum value of 7 points each one
- 19 points are assigned by several multiple choice questions (approximately: 10-13 questions with value of 1-2 points each one)and short open questions (approximately: 2-4 questions with value of 2-2.5 points each one).
The total score 33 points. The final mark is the sum of the scores of all the questions which were correctly answered. In case of wrong answer, no penalization will be applied. To pass the exam, it is necessary to get at least 18 points. The maximum mark of 30/30 cum laude will be given if the student will exceed the score of 31 points.
The time for the test is 2.5 hours. It is not allowed to consult books, computers, mobile phones, etc ....
If the exams are not allowed live, the exam will consist of a remote oral test (for example, through Google Meet): the candidate must answer to 3-5 questions about the whole program. Reference texts
- PHARMACOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY Teacher’s handouts
Specific topics can be further developed in the following texts.
Casarett & Doull. Elementi di tossicologia di John B. III Watkins, Curtis D. Klaassen (2013) CEA
Marzano - Medana. Chimica Tossicologica (2018) Piccin.
ALLEGRUCCI M., DI PAOLO A., FANTOZZI R., GOVONI S., MAFFEI F.Tossicologia. Principi e applicazione all'uso dei farmaci e dei prodotti della salute First edition (2009) GHI P.
Galli - Corsini - Marinovich - Tossicologia (2016) Piccin
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
- The reference text is:
CHIMICA AMBIENTALE; C. Baird, M. Cann; Zanichelli, 2013.
- Another suitable textbook is:
CHIMICA DELL’AMBIENTE; S. E. Manahan; Piccin, 2000.
- The slides showed during lectures will be given to the students
