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Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs. The word derives from the Greek: (pharmakon), meaning "drug" or "medicine". The scope of pharmacy practice includes more traditional roles such as compounding and dispensing medications, and it also includes more modern services related to health care, including clinical services, reviewing medications for safety and efficacy, and providing drug information. Pharmacists, therefore, are the experts on drug therapy and are the primary health professionals who optimize medication use to provide patients with positive health outcomes. An establishment in which pharmacy (in the first sense) is practiced is called a pharmacy, chemist's or drug store. In the United States and Canada, drug stores commonly sell not only medicines, but also miscellaneous items such as candy (sweets), cosmetics, and magazines, as well as light refreshments or groceries.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Toxicology: Basic Concept




'All substances are poisons - the difference is in the dose' 
The above aphorism is attributed to Paracelsus. It illustrates that the potential for harm is widespread & all chemicals could be poisonous but the degree of harm that a chemical can inflict on a human or any other living being depends on the dose or the degree of exposure as well as on other factors.

In other words the risk (i.e. that product of the likelihood & the severity of harm) from a poisonous hazard depends on the exposure.
This account is intended for those with small or no background in toxicology. Toxicology is a complex & difficult science. In an try to make it more understandable, lots of broad generalisations are made, without detailing the mechanisms or addressing the exceptions. This page must therefore be interpreted cautiously.
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