Volume 50, Number 1, December 2003:
A Toxicology Primer for Student Inquiry: Biological Smoke Detectors

Text-only version

ISSUE HOME PAGE

ABOUT THIS ISSUE
- about KSN
- about the author
- acknowledgements

IN THIS ISSUE
- disclaimer, objectives
- "biological smoke detectors"
- purpose of invertebrate toxicity testing
- lethal and sublethal effects
- some wormy ideas for toxicity testing
- sublethal chemical effects in lumbriculus
- selecting the chemical(s)
- safety
- exposure methods
- preliminary experiments and concentration range-finding
- final stages of toxicity testing
- typical equipment and supplies
- other organisms, other ideas
- obtaining background information
- references
- glossary of toxicological terms

A Toxicology Primer for Student Inquiry:
Biological Smoke Detectors
by Charles Drewes

DISCLAIMER:

The user assumes all responsibilities for the safe and proper handling and application of chemicals listed and described herein.  The author (ADD) assumes no liability relating to the use and effects of these listed chemicals, or any others.  Before handling any chemical, users should obtain a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) and/or International Chemical Safety Card for each chemical from:  http://hazard.com/msds/

These sheets should be made available to all users in the laboratory.  Before performing experiments, users should carefully follow warnings and instructions on all labeling of consumer products.  Mention herein of any product brand names in no way represents the author’s favorable or unfavorable endorsement of these products.

OBJECTIVES

Toxicology is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on organisms.  Though formal training in toxicology may not begin until professional school, student interest and inquiry in this area may begin much earlier.  A motivated high school student, for example, may study toxicity effects for a biology research project or science fair.  This student faces an array of important questions.  What scientific problem will be studied?  Can simple yet meaningful experiments be done?  What organism, chemical, materials, methods, and safety precautions will be used?  How will experiments be designed and how will results be interpreted? 

When undertaking a toxicology project, a student may quickly discover that general biology texts, school and public libraries, or the world wide web provide little practical guidance or tutorial assistance.  Faced with this lack of guidance, the result for many students is frustration and haphazard results due to flawed research design.  However, student research in toxicology need not be an unguided or haphazard experience.  

At the outset, I want to strongly emphasize that my aim is not to popularize and promote toxicology experimentation at pre-college levels.  Rather, it is to provide young, ambitious, and careful students—who have already decided to attempt a toxicology project—with a “toxicology primer” that contains useful suggestions and practical guidance that enhance the quality, meaningfulness, and safety of their experiments.  Hopefully, such information should be valuable to biology teachers and other research mentors, at all educational levels.

Ideas in this booklet derive from my research experience and mentoring activities in ecotoxicology and neurotoxicology, mostly involving aquatic and terrestrial oligochaete worms.  So, I admit to a strong “worm bias” and the content of this article reflects that bias.  However, I think most toxicologists would agree that these organisms offer good potential for toxicity studies in both science education and professional research.  Many other invertebrate species, of course, may be equally or more useful, depending on one’s objectives and interests.  I hope the ideas here will be of general use, as a conceptual template, regardless of species. Since the vocabulary of toxicology may be alien to students, I have included a glossary of common toxicological terms.

For economic, ethical, and pedagogical reasons I do not recommend that any pre-college student undertake a toxicology project that uses vertebrate animals.  Also, I do not recommend that students use hazardous chemicals or attempt a toxicology project unless they have approval and supervision from a qualified teacher/mentor.  Maximizing safety and minimizing human health risks are paramount concerns for all toxicology investigations!  Nevertheless, given a little creative and careful thinking, I believe that many novel, safe, and scientifically valuable investigations can be done in toxicology by novice researchers, even when faced with limited resources.  Above all, research students should remember the “double-K.I.S.S.” guidelines: